Cache memory, processing unit, data processing system and method for filtering snooped operations

ABSTRACT

A cache coherent data processing system includes at least a first cache memory supporting a first processing unit and a second cache memory supporting a second processing unit. The first cache memory includes a cache array and a cache directory of contents of the cache array. In response to the first cache memory detecting on an interconnect a broadcast operation that specifies a request address, the first cache memory determines from the operation a type of the operation and a coherency state associated with the request address. In response to determining the type and the coherency state, the first cache memory filters out the broadcast operation without accessing the cache directory.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates in general to data processing and, inparticular, to improved data processing system and cache memories fordata processing systems. Still more particularly, the present inventionrelates to snoop filtering in a cache memory of a data processingsystem.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) computer system, such as aserver computer system, includes multiple processing units all coupledto a system interconnect, which typically comprises one or more address,data and control buses. Coupled to the system interconnect is a systemmemory, which represents the lowest level of volatile memory in themultiprocessor computer system and which generally is accessible forread and write access by all processing units. In order to reduce accesslatency to instructions and data residing in the system memory, eachprocessing unit is typically further supported by a respectivemulti-level cache hierarchy, the lower level(s) of which may be sharedby one or more processor cores.

Because multiple processor cores may request write access to a samecache line of data and because modified cache lines are not immediatelysynchronized with system memory, the cache hierarchies of multiprocessorcomputer systems typically implement a cache coherency protocol toensure at least a minimum level of coherence among the various processorcore's “views” of the contents of system memory. In particular, cachecoherency requires, at a minimum, that after a processing unit accessesa copy of a memory block and subsequently accesses an updated copy ofthe memory block, the processing unit cannot again access the old copyof the memory block.

A cache coherency protocol typically defines a set of cache coherencystates stored in a cache directory in association with the cache linesof each cache hierarchy, as well as a set of coherency messages utilizedto communicate the cache state information between cache hierarchies. Ina typical implementation, the cache state information takes the form ofthe well-known MESI (Modified, Exclusive, Shared, Invalid) protocol or avariant thereof, and the coherency messages indicate a protocol-definedcoherency state transition in the cache directory of the cache at therequestor and/or the recipients of a memory access request.

The cache directory, which identifies the cache lines contained in thecache and their respective coherency states, is a scarce resource thatis accessed by a cache in the servicing of memory access requests by theassociated processor core(s) and remote processor cores. Because thecache directory does not scale well with system size and operatingfrequency, in multiprocessor systems it is sometimes the case that acache directory is not available to snoop a memory access by a remoteprocessor core, for example, due to one or more competing accesses by alocal processor core. In such cases, the cache memory may have to forcethe operation by the remote processor core to be retried, for example,by providing an appropriate coherency response message. As this scenariois repeated over time in many cache hierarchies throughout the dataprocessing system, memory access requests are subject to higher averagelatencies, and overall system performance degrades.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing, the present invention provides an improvedcache memory, processing unit, data processing system, and method ofdata processing in which contention for a cache directory is reduced byfiltering out selected snooped operation to eliminate accesses to thecache directory.

In one embodiment, a cache coherent data processing system includes atleast a first cache memory supporting a first processing unit and asecond cache memory supporting a second processing unit. The first cachememory includes a cache array and a cache directory of contents of thecache array. In response to the first cache memory detecting on aninterconnect a broadcast operation that specifies a request address, thefirst cache memory determines from the operation a type of the operationand a coherency state associated with the request address. In responseto determining the type and the coherency state, the first cache memoryfilters out the broadcast operation without accessing the cachedirectory.

All objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent in the following detailed written description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. However, the invention, as well as apreferred mode of use, will best be understood by reference to thefollowing detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when readin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of an exemplary data processingsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of a processing unit inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a more detailed block diagram of the L2 cache of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a time-space diagram of an exemplary transaction on the systeminterconnect of the data processing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 illustrates a domain indicator in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofservicing a read operation by a processor core in a data processingsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 7A-7B together form a high level logical flowchart of an exemplarymethod of servicing a processor update operation in a data processingsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 8A-8B together form a high level logical flowchart of an exemplarymethod of servicing a processor write operation in a data processingsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming an I/O read operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming an I/O write operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming an I/O partial write operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary cache castoutoperation for a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 13 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus read operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 14A-14B together form a high level logical flowchart of anexemplary method of performing a global bus read operation in a dataprocessing system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus RWITM operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 16A-16B together form a high level logical flowchart of anexemplary method of performing a global bus RWITM operation in a dataprocessing system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus DClaim operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a global bus DClaim operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus kill operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a global bus kill operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus DCBZ operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a global bus DCBZ operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus castout operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a global bus castout operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a local bus write operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a global bus write operation in a data processing system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofperforming a global bus partial write operation in a data processingsystem in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 28 is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofsnoop filtering in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

I. Exemplary Data Processing System

With reference now to the figures and, in particular, with reference toFIG. 1, there is illustrated a high level block diagram of an exemplaryembodiment of a cache coherent symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) dataprocessing system in accordance with the present invention. As shown,data processing system 100 includes multiple processing nodes 102 a, 102b for processing data and instructions. Processing nodes 102 a, 102 bare coupled to a system interconnect 110 for conveying address, data andcontrol information. System interconnect 110 may be implemented, forexample, as a bused interconnect, a switched interconnect or a hybridinterconnect.

In the depicted embodiment, each processing node 102 is realized as amulti-chip module (MCM) containing four processing units 104 a-104 d,each preferably realized as a respective integrated circuit. Theprocessing units 104 a-104 d within each processing node 102 are coupledfor communication by a local interconnect 114, which, like systeminterconnect 110, may be implemented with one or more buses and/orswitches.

The devices coupled to each local interconnect 114 include not onlyprocessing units 104, but also one or more system memories 108 a-108 d.Data and instructions residing in system memories 108 can generally beaccessed and modified by a processor core in any processing unit 104 inany processing node 102 of data processing system 100. In alternativeembodiments of the invention, one or more system memories 108 can becoupled to system interconnect 110 rather than a local interconnect 114.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that SMP data processing system100 can include many additional unillustrated components, such asinterconnect bridges, non-volatile storage, ports for connection tonetworks or attached devices, etc. Because such additional componentsare not necessary for an understanding of the present invention, theyare not illustrated in FIG. 1 or discussed further herein. It shouldalso be understood, however, that the enhancements provided by thepresent invention are applicable to cache coherent data processingsystems of diverse architectures and are in no way limited to thegeneralized data processing system architecture illustrated in FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is depicted a more detailed block diagramof an exemplary processing unit 104 in accordance with the presentinvention. In the depicted embodiment, each processing unit 104 includestwo processor cores 200 a, 200 b for independently processinginstructions and data. Each processor core 200 includes at least aninstruction sequencing unit (ISU) 208 for fetching and orderinginstructions for execution and one or more execution units 224 forexecuting instructions. The instructions executed by execution units 224include instructions that request access to a memory block or cause thegeneration of a request for access to a memory block.

The operation of each processor core 200 is supported by a multi-levelvolatile memory hierarchy having at its lowest level shared systemmemories 108 a-108 d, and at its upper levels one or more levels ofcache memory. In the depicted embodiment, each processing unit 104includes an integrated memory controller (IMC) 206 that controls readand write access to a respective one of the system memories 108 a-108 dwithin its processing node 102 in response to requests received fromprocessor cores 200 a-200 b and operations snooped by a snooper (S) 222on the local interconnect 114.

In the illustrative embodiment, the cache memory hierarchy of processingunit 104 includes a store-through level one (L1) cache 226 within eachprocessor core 200 and a level two (L2) cache 230 shared by allprocessor cores 200 a, 200 b of the processing unit 104. Although theillustrated cache hierarchy includes only two levels of cache, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that alternative embodiments mayinclude additional levels (L3, L4, etc.) of on-chip or off-chip in-lineor lookaside cache, which may be fully inclusive, partially inclusive,or non-inclusive of the contents the upper levels of cache.

Each processing unit 104 further includes an instance of response logic210, which as discussed further below, implements a portion of thedistributed coherency signaling mechanism that maintains cache coherencywithin data processing system 100. In addition, each processing unit 104includes an instance of forwarding logic 212 for selectively forwardingcommunications between its local interconnect 114 and systeminterconnect 110. Finally, each processing unit 104 includes anintegrated I/O (input/output) controller 214 supporting the attachmentof one or more I/O devices, such as I/O device 216. As described furtherbelow, I/O controller 214 may issue operations on local interconnect 114and/or system interconnect 110 in response to requests by I/O device216.

With reference now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a more detailed blockdiagram of an exemplary embodiment of an L2 cache 230 in accordance withthe present invention. As illustrated, L2 cache 230 includes an L2 cachearray 300 for storing memory blocks and an L2 cache directory 302 of thecontents of L2 cache array 300. As in conventional set associativecaches, memory locations in system memories 108 are mapped to particularcongruence classes within L2 cache array 300 utilizing predeterminedindex bits within the system memory (real) addresses. The particularcache lines stored within cache array 300 are recorded in cachedirectory 302, which contains one directory entry for each cache line inL2 cache array 300. As understood by those skilled in the art, eachdirectory entry in cache directory 302 comprises at least a tag field304, which specifies the particular cache line stored in cache array 300utilizing a tag portion of the corresponding real address, a state field306, which indicates the coherency state of the cache line, and a LRU(Least Recently Used) field 308 indicating a replacement order for thecache line with respect to other cache lines in the same congruenceclass.

L2 cache 230 also includes reservation logic 310, which contains one ormore reservation flags 312 (only one of which is shown) for indicatingthe presence or absence of a reservation of a real address by one of theassociated processor cores 200. Each reservation flag 312 has anassociated reservation register 314 for recording the real address forwhich the reservation is held. Reservation logic 310 further includes acomparator 316 for comparing the address(es) contained in reservationaddress register(s) 314 to the addresses specified by requests of theassociated processor cores 200 and addresses specified by operationsreceived from the local interconnect 114. For at least destructiveprocessor core requests and interconnect operations, the detection of anaddress match by comparator 316 will cause the relevant reservation flag312 to be reset to indicate that the reservation has been lost.

In accordance with the present invention, and as described in detailbelow with reference to FIG. 28, selected operations snooped from localinterconnect 114 are filtered out by a snoop filter 320 in order toreduce contention for access to L2 cache directory 302. Requests byprocessor cores 200 and interconnect operations remaining after thefiltering of snoop filter 320 are presented to a multiplexer 322, whichplaces selected processor core requests and interconnect operations intodispatch pipeline 330 in response to signals from a directory arbiter324. Dispatch pipeline 330 contains a number of latched stages 332 a-332n from which, inter alia, access is made to L2 cache directory 302 andreservation logic 310 to determine the coherency state of the requestedaddress in state field 306 and whether a reservation exists for therequested address in reservation logic 310.

Once the local reservation and coherency state information is obtainedand appended to a processor core request or interconnect operation indispatch pipeline 330, the processor core request or interconnectoperation is dispatched for servicing. That is, master dispatcher 340dispatches each processor core request to one of master logic instances350 a-350 n within master 232 for servicing, and snoop dispatcher 342dispatches each interconnect operation to one of snoop logic instances360 a-360 n within snooper 236 for servicing. Master logic instances 350initiate transactions on local interconnect 114 and system interconnect110 and access L2 cache directory 302 and L2 cache array 300 in responseto the processor core requests received from the associated processorcores 200 a-200 b. Snooper logic instances 360 provide appropriateresponses to interconnect operations and perform any accesses to L2cache directory 302 and L2 cache array 300 required by these operations.

II. Exemplary Operation

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is depicted a time-space diagram of anexemplary operation on a local or system interconnect 110, 114 of dataprocessing system 100 of FIG. 1. The operation begins when a master 232of an L2 cache 230 (or another master, such as an I/O controller 214)issues a request 402 on a local interconnect 114 and/or systeminterconnect 110. Request 402 preferably includes a transaction typeindicating a type of desired access and a resource identifier (e.g.,real address) indicating a resource to be accessed by the request.Common types of requests preferably include those set forth below inTable I.

TABLE I Request Description READ Requests a copy of the image of amemory block for query purposes RWITM (Read-With- Requests a unique copyof the image of a memory Intent-To-Modify) block with the intent toupdate (modify) it and requires destruction of other copies, if anyDCLAIM (Data Requests authority to promote an existing query- Claim)only copy of memory block to a unique copy with the intent to update(modify) it and requires destruction of other copies, if any DCBZ (DataCache Requests authority to create a new unique copy Block Zero) of amemory block without regard to its present state and subsequently modifyits contents; requires destruction of other copies, if any CASTOUTCopies the image of a memory block from a higher level of memory to alower level of memory in preparation for the destruction of the higherlevel copy WRITE Requests authority to create a new unique copy of amemory block without regard to its present state and immediately copythe image of the memory block from a higher level memory to a lowerlevel memory in preparation for the destruction of the higher level copyPARTIAL WRITE Requests authority to create a new unique copy of apartial memory block without regard to its present state and immediatelycopy the image of the partial memory block from a higher level memory toa lower level memory in preparation for the destruction of the higherlevel copy

Request 402 is received by the snooper 236 of L2 caches 230, as well asthe snoopers 222 of memory controllers 206 (FIG. 1). In general, withsome exceptions, the snooper 236 in the same L2 cache 230 as the master232 of request 402 does not snoop request 402 (i.e., there is generallyno self-snooping) because a request 402 is transmitted on localinterconnect 114 and/or system interconnect 110 only if the request 402cannot be serviced internally by a processing unit 104. Each snooper222, 236 that receives request 402 provides a respective partialresponse 406 representing the response of at least that snooper torequest 402. A snooper 222 within a memory controller 206 determines thepartial response 406 to provide based, for example, whether the snooper222 is responsible for the request address and whether it has resourcesavailable to service the request. A snooper 236 of an L2 cache 230 maydetermine its partial response 406 based on, for example, theavailability of its L2 cache directory 302, the availability of a snooplogic instance within snooper 236 to handle the request, and thecoherency state associated with the request address in L2 cachedirectory 302.

The partial responses of snoopers 222 and 236 are logically combinedeither in stages or all at once by one or more instances of responselogic 210 to determine a system-wide combined response (CR) 410 torequest 402. Subject to the scope restrictions discussed below, responselogic 210 provides combined response 410 to master 232 and snoopers 222,236 via its local interconnect 114 and/or system interconnect 110 toindicate the system-wide response (e.g., success, failure, retry, etc.)to request 402. If CR 410 indicates success of request 402, CR 410 mayindicate, for example, a data source for a requested memory block, acache state in which the requested memory block is to be cached bymaster 232, and whether “cleanup” operations invalidating the requestedmemory block in one or more L2 caches 230 are required.

In response to receipt of combined response 410, one or more of master232 and snoopers 222, 236 typically perform one or more operations inorder to service request 402. These operations may include supplyingdata to master 232, invalidating or otherwise updating the coherencystate of data cached in one or more L2 caches 230, performing castoutoperations, writing back data to a system memory 108, etc. As discussedfurther below, if required by request 402, a requested or target memoryblock may be transmitted to or from master 232 before or after thegeneration of combined response 410 by response logic 210.

In the following description, partial response of a snooper 222, 236 toa request and the operations performed the snooper in response to therequest and/or its combined response will be described with reference towhether that snooper is a Highest Point of Coherency (HPC), a LowestPoint of Coherency (LPC), or neither with respect to the request addressspecified by the request. An LPC is defined herein as a memory device orI/O device that serves as the repository for a memory block. In theabsence of a HPC for the memory block, the LPC holds the true image ofthe memory block and has authority to grant or deny requests to generatean additional cached copy of the memory block. For a typical request inthe data processing system embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the LPC will bethe memory controller 206 for the system memory 108 holding thereferenced memory block. An HPC is defined herein as a uniquelyidentified device that caches a true image of the memory block (whichmay or may not be consistent with the corresponding memory block at theLPC) and has the authority to grant or deny a request to modify thememory block. Descriptively, the HPC may also provide a copy of thememory block to a requestor in response to an operation that does notmodify the memory block. Thus, for a typical request in the dataprocessing system embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the HPC, if any, will bean L2 cache 230. Although other indicators may be utilized to designatean HPC for a memory block, a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention designates the HPC, if any, for a memory block utilizingselected cache coherency state(s) within the L2 cache directory 302 ofan L2 cache 230, as described further below with reference to Table II.

Still referring to FIG. 4, the HPC, if any, for a memory blockreferenced in a request 402, or in the absence of an HPC, the LPC of thememory block, preferably has the responsibility of protecting thetransfer of ownership of a memory block in response to a request 402during a protection window 404 a. In the exemplary scenario shown inFIG. 4, the snooper 236 that is the HPC for the memory block specifiedby the request address of request 402 protects the transfer of ownershipof the requested memory block to master 232 during a protection window404 a that extends from the time that snooper 236 determines its partialresponse 406 until snooper 236 receives combined response 410. Duringprotection window 404 a, snooper 236 protects the transfer of ownershipby providing partial responses 406 to other requests specifying the samerequest address that prevent other masters from obtaining ownershipuntil ownership has been successfully transferred to master 232. Master232 likewise initiates a protection window 404 b to protect itsownership of the memory block requested in request 402 following receiptof combined response 410.

Because snoopers 222, 236 all have limited resources for handling theCPU and I/O requests described above, several different levels ofpartial responses and corresponding CRs are possible. For example, if asnooper 222 within a memory controller 206 that is responsible for arequested memory block has queue available to handle a request, thesnooper 222 may respond with a partial response indicating that it isable to serve as the LPC for the request. If, on the other hand, thesnooper 222 has no queue available to handle the request, the snooper222 may respond with a partial response indicating that is the LPC forthe memory block, but is unable to currently service the request.

Similarly, a snooper 236 in an L2 cache 230 may require an availableinstance of snoop logic and access to L2 cache directory 302 in order tohandle a request. Absence of access to either (or both) of theseresources results in a partial response (and corresponding CR) signalingan inability to service the request due to absence of a requiredresource.

Hereafter, a snooper 222, 236 providing a partial response indicatingthat the snooper has available all internal resources required toservice a request, if required, is said to “affirm” the request. Forsnoopers 236, partial responses affirming a snooped operation preferablyindicate the cache state of the requested or target memory block at thatsnooper 236. A snooper 236 providing a partial response indicating thatthe snooper 236 does not have available all internal resources requiredto service the request may be said to be “possibly hidden.” Such asnooper 236 is “possibly hidden” because the snooper 236, due to lack ofan available instance of snoop logic or access to L2 cache directory302, cannot “affirm” the request in sense defined above and has, fromthe perspective of other masters 232 and snoopers 222, 236, an unknowncoherency state.

III. Data Delivery Domains

Conventional broadcast-based data processing systems handle both cachecoherency and data delivery through broadcast communication, which inconventional systems is transmitted on a system interconnect to at leastall memory controllers and cache hierarchies in the system. As comparedwith systems of alternative architectures and like scale,broadcast-based systems tend to offer decreased access latency andbetter data handling and coherency management of shared memory blocks.

As broadcast-based system scale in size, traffic volume on the systeminterconnect is multiplied, meaning that system cost rises sharply withsystem scale as more bandwidth is required for communication over thesystem interconnect. That is, a system with m processor cores, eachhaving an average traffic volume of n transactions, has a traffic volumeof m×n, meaning that traffic volume in broadcast-based systems scalesmultiplicatively not additively. Beyond the requirement forsubstantially greater interconnect bandwidth, an increase in system sizehas the secondary effect of increasing some access latencies. Forexample, the access latency of read data is limited, in the worst case,by the combined response latency of the furthest away lower level cacheholding the requested memory block in a shared coherency state fromwhich the requested data can be sourced.

In order to reduce system interconnect bandwidth requirements and accesslatencies while still retaining the advantages of a broadcast-basedsystem, the present invention reduces data access latency by decreasingthe average distance between a requesting L2 cache 230 and an datasource. One technique for do so is to reducing the average distancebetween a requesting L2 cache 230 and a data source is to permitmultiple L2 caches 230 distributed throughout data processing system 100to hold copies of the same memory block in a “special” shared coherencystate that permits these caches to supply the memory block to requestingL2 caches 230 using cache-to-cache intervention.

In order to implement multiple concurrent and distributed sources forshared memory blocks in an SMP data processing system, such as dataprocessing system 100, two issues must be addressed. First, some rulegoverning the creation of copies of memory blocks in the “special”shared coherency state alluded to above must be implemented. Second,there must be a rule governing which snooping L2 cache 230, if any,provides a shared memory block to a requesting L2 cache 230, forexample, in response to a bus read operation or bus RWITM operation.

According to the present invention, both of these issues are addressedthrough the implementation of data sourcing domains. In particular, eachdomain within a SMP data processing system, where a domain is defined toinclude one or more lower level (e.g., L2) caches that participate inresponding to data requests, is permitted to include only one cachehierarchy that holds a particular memory block in the “special” sharedcoherency state at a time. That cache hierarchy, if present when a busread-type (e.g., read or RWITM) operation is initiated by a requestinglower level cache in the same domain, is responsible for sourcing therequested memory block to the requesting lower level cache. Althoughmany different domain sizes may be defined, in data processing system100 of FIG. 1, it is convenient if each processing node 102 (i.e., MCM)is considered a data sourcing domain. One example of such a “special”shared state (i.e., Sr) is described below with reference to Table II.

IV. Coherency Domains

While the implementation of data delivery domains as described aboveimproves data access latency, this enhancement does not address the m×nmultiplication of traffic volume as system scale increases. In order toreduce traffic volume while still maintaining a broadcast-basedcoherency mechanism, preferred embodiments of the present inventionadditionally implement coherency domains, which like the data deliverydomains hereinbefore described, can conveniently (but are not requiredto be) implemented with each processing node 102 forming a separatecoherency domain. Data delivery domains and coherency domains can be,but are not required to be coextensive, and for the purposes ofexplaining exemplary operation of data processing system 100 willhereafter be assumed to have boundaries defined by processing nodes 102.

The implementation of coherency domains reduces system traffic bylimiting inter-domain broadcast communication over system interconnect110 in cases in which requests can be serviced with participation byfewer than all coherency domains. For example, if processing unit 104 aof processing node 102 a has a bus read operation to issue, thenprocessing unit 104 a may elect to first broadcast the bus readoperation to all participants within its own coherency domain (e.g.,processing node 102 a), but not to participants in other coherencydomains (e.g., processing node 102 b). A broadcast operation transmittedto only those participants within the same coherency domain as themaster of the operation is defined herein as a “local operation”. If thelocal bus read operation can be serviced within the coherency domain ofprocessing unit 104 a, then no further broadcast of the bus readoperation is performed. If, however, the partial responses and combinedresponse to the local bus read operation indicate that the bus readoperation cannot be serviced solely within the coherency domain ofprocessing node 102 a, the scope of the broadcast may then be extendedto include, in addition to the local coherency domain, one or moreadditional coherency domains.

In a basic implementation, two broadcast scopes are employed: a “local”scope including only the local coherency domain and a “global” scopeincluding all of the other coherency domains in the SMP data processingsystem. Thus, an operation that is transmitted to all coherency domainsin an SMP data processing system is defined herein as a “globaloperation”. Importantly, regardless of whether local operations oroperations of more expansive scope (e.g., global operations) areemployed to service operations, cache coherency is maintained across allcoherency domains in the SMP data processing system.

In a preferred embodiment, the scope of an operation is indicated in abus operation by a local/global indicator (signal), which in oneembodiment may comprise a 1-bit flag. Forwarding logic 212 withinprocessing units 104 preferably determines whether or not to forward anoperation received via local interconnect 114 onto system interconnect110 based upon the setting of the local/global indicator (signal) in theoperation.

V. Domain Indicators

In order to limit the issuance of unneeded local operations and therebyreduce operational latency and conserve additional bandwidth on localinterconnects, the present invention preferably implements a domainindicator per memory block that indicates whether or not a copy of theassociated memory block is cached outside of the local coherency domain.For example, FIG. 5 depicts a first exemplary implementation of a domainindicator in accordance with the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5,a system memory 108, which may be implemented in dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), stores a plurality of memory blocks 500. System memory108 stores in association with each memory block 500 an associated errorcorrecting code (ECC) 502 utilized to correct errors, if any, in memoryblock 500 and a domain indicator 504. Although in some embodiments ofthe present invention, domain indicator 504 may identify a particularcoherency domain (i.e., specify a coherency domain or node ID), it ishereafter assumed that domain indicator 504 is a 1-bit indicator that isset (e.g., to ‘1’ to indicate “local”) if the associated memory block500 is cached, if at all, only within the same coherency domain as thememory controller 206 serving as the LPC for the memory block 500.Domain indicator 504 is reset (e.g., to ‘0’ to indicate “global”)otherwise. The setting of domain indicators 504 to indicate “local” maybe implemented imprecisely in that a false setting of “global” will notinduce any coherency errors, but may cause unneeded global broadcasts ofoperations.

Importantly, memory controllers 206 (and L2 caches 230) that source amemory block in response to an operation preferably transmit theassociated domain indicator 504 in conjunction with the requested memoryblock.

VI. Exemplary Coherency Protocol

The present invention preferably implements a cache coherency protocoldesigned to leverage the implementation of data delivery and coherencydomains as described above. In a preferred embodiment, the cachecoherency states within the protocol, in addition to providing (1) anindication of whether a cache is the HPC for a memory block, alsoindicate (2) whether the cached copy is unique (i.e., is the only cachedcopy system-wide) among caches at that memory hierarchy level, (3)whether and when the cache can provide a copy of the memory block to amaster of a request for the memory block, (4) whether the cached imageof the memory block is consistent with the corresponding memory block atthe LPC (system memory), and (5) whether another cache in a remotecoherency domain (possibly) holds a cache entry having a matchingaddress. These five attributes can be expressed, for example, in anexemplary variant of the well-known MESI (Modified, Exclusive, Shared,Invalid) protocol summarized below in Table II.

TABLE II Legal Cache Consistent Cached outside concurrent state HPC?Unique? Data source? with LPC? local domain? states M yes yes yes,before CR no no I, Ig (& LPC) Me yes yes yes, before CR yes no I, Ig (&LPC) T yes unknown yes, after CR no unknown Sr, S, I, Ig (& LPC) if noneprovided before CR Tn yes unknown yes, after CR no no Sr, S, I, Ig (&LPC) if none provided before CR Te yes unknown yes, after CR yes unknownSr, S, I, Ig (& LPC) if none provided before CR Ten yes unknown yes,after CR yes no Sr, S, I, Ig (& LPC) if none provided before CR Sr nounknown yes, before CR unknown unknown T, Tn, Te, Ten, S, I, Ig (& LPC)S no unknown no unknown unknown T, Tn, Te, Ten, Sr, S, I, Ig (& LPC) Ino n/a no n/a unknown M, Me, T, Tn, Te, Ten, Sr, S, I, Ig (& LPC) Ig non/a no n/a Assumed so, in M, Me, T, Tn, Te, Ten, absence of other Sr, S,I, Ig (& LPC) information

A. Ig State

In order to avoid having to access the LPC to determine whether or notthe memory block is known to be cached, if at all, only locally, the Ig(Invalid global) coherency state is utilized to maintain a domainindication in cases in which no copy of a memory block remains cached ina coherency domain. The Ig state is defined herein as a cache coherencystate indicating (1) the associated memory block in the cache array isinvalid, (2) the address tag in the cache directory is valid, and (3) acopy of the memory block identified by the address tag may possibly becached in another coherency domain.

The Ig state is formed in a lower level cache in response to that cacheproviding a requested memory block to a requestor in another coherencydomain in response to an exclusive access request (e.g., a bus RWITMoperation). In some embodiments of the present invention, it may bepreferable to form the Ig state only in the coherency domain containingthe LPC for the memory block. In such embodiments, some mechanism (e.g.,a partial response by the LPC and subsequent combined response) must beimplemented to indicate to the cache sourcing the requested memory blockthat the LPC is within its local coherency domain. In other embodimentsthat do not support the communication of an indication that the LPC islocal, an Ig state may be formed any time that a cache sources a memoryblock to a remote coherency node in response to an exclusive accessrequest.

Because cache directory entries including an Ig state carry potentiallyuseful information, it is desirable in at least some implementations topreferentially retain entries in the Ig state over entries in the Istate (e.g., by modifying the Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithmutilized to select a victim cache entry for replacement). As Igdirectory entries are retained in cache, it is possible for some Igentries to become “stale” over time in that a cache whose exclusiveaccess request caused the formation of the Ig state may deallocate orwriteback its copy of the memory block without notification to the cacheholding the address tag of the memory block in the Ig state. In suchcases, the “stale” Ig state, which incorrectly indicates that a globaloperation should be issued instead of a local operation, will not causeany coherency errors, but will merely cause some operations, which couldotherwise be serviced utilizing a local operation, to be issued asglobal operations. Occurrences of such inefficiencies will be limited induration by the eventual replacement of the “stale” Ig cache entries.

Several rules govern the selection and replacement of Ig cache entries.First, if a cache selects an Ig entry as the victim for replacement, acastout of the Ig entry is performed (unlike the case when an I entry isselected). Second, if a request that causes a memory block to be loadedinto a cache hits on an Ig cache entry in that same cache, the cachetreats the Ig hit as a cache miss and performs a castout operation withthe an Ig entry as the selected victim. The cache thus avoids avoidplacing two copies of the same address tag in the cache directory.Third, the castout of the Ig state is preferably performed as a localoperation, or if performed as a global operation, ignored by the LPC ofthe castout address. If an Ig entry is permitted to form in a cache thatis not within the same coherency domain as the LPC for the memory block,no update to the domain indicator in the LPC is required. Fourth, thecastout of the Ig state is preferably performed as a datalessaddress-only operation in which the domain indicator is written back tothe LPC (if local to the cache performing the castout).

Implementation of an Ig state in accordance with the present inventionimproves communication efficiency by maintaining a cached domainindicator for a memory block in a coherency domain even when no validcopy of the memory block remains cached in the coherency domain. As aconsequence, an HPC for a memory block can service an exclusive accessrequest (e.g., bus RWITM operation) from a remote coherency domainwithout retrying the request and performing a push of the requestedmemory block to the LPC.

B. Sr State

In the operations described below, it is useful to be able to determinewhether or not a lower level cache holding a shared requested memoryblock in the Sr coherency state is located within the same domain as therequesting master. In one embodiment, the presence of a “local” Srsnooper within the same domain as the requesting master can be indicatedby the response behavior of a snooper at a lower level cache holding arequested memory block in the Sr coherency state. For example, assumingthat each bus operation includes a scope indicator indicating whetherthe bus operation has crossed a domain boundary (e.g., an explicitdomain identifier of the master or a single local/not local bit), alower level cache holding a shared memory block in the Sr coherencystate can provide a partial response affirming the request in the Srstate only for requests by masters within the same data sourcing domainand provide partial responses indicating the S state for all otherrequests. In such embodiments the response behavior can be summarized asshown in Table III, where prime (′) notation is utilized to designatepartial responses that may differ from the actual cache state of thememory block.

TABLE III Partial response Domain of (adequate Partial response masterof read- Cache state resources (adequate resources type request indirectory available) unavailable) “local” (i.e., Sr Sr′ affirm Sr′possibly hidden within same domain) “remote” (i.e., Sr S′ affirm S′possibly hidden not within same domain) “local” (i.e., S S′ affirm S′possibly hidden within same domain) “remote” (i.e., S S′ affirm S′possibly hidden not within same domain)Assuming the response behavior set forth above in Table III, the averagedata latency for shared data can be significantly decreased byincreasing the number of shared copies of memory blocks distributedwithin an SMP data processing system that may serve as data sources.VII. Exemplary Operations

With reference now generally to FIGS. 6-27, several high level logicalflowcharts depicting the logical steps involved in servicing requests ofprocessor cores 200, L2 caches 230 and I/O controllers 214 are given. Inparticular, FIGS. 6-12 depict the various processes within masters ofthe requests, and FIGS. 13-27 illustrate operations involved withcommunicating and servicing the requests via local and systeminterconnects 114, 110. Even though interconnects 110, 114 are notnecessarily bused interconnects, such operations are termed “busoperations” (e.g., bus read operation, bus write operation, etc.) hereinto distinguish them from cache or CPU (processor) operations. As logicalflowcharts, it should be understood that these figures are not intendedto convey a strict chronology of operations and that many of theillustrated operations may be performed concurrently or in a differentorder than that shown.

A. CPU and Cache Operations

With reference first to FIG. 6, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of servicing a processor read operationin a data processing system in accordance with the present invention. Asshown, the process begins at block 600, which represents a master 232 inan L2 cache 230 receiving a read request from an associated processorcore 200. In response to receipt of the read request, master 232determines at block 602 whether or not the requested memory block isheld in L2 cache directory 302 in any of the M, Me, Tx (e.g., T, Tn, Teor Ten), Sr or S states. If so, master 232 accesses L2 cache array 300to obtain the requested memory block and supplies the requested memoryblock to the requesting processor core 200, as shown at block 624. Theprocess thereafter terminates at block 626.

Returning to block 602, if the requested memory block is not held in L2directory 302 in any of the M, Me, Tx, S, or Sr states, a determinationis also made at block 604 whether or not a castout of an existing cacheline is required to accommodate the requested memory block in L2 cache230. In one embodiment, a castout operation is required at block 604 andat similar blocks in succeeding figures if the memory block selected asa victim for eviction from the L2 cache 230 of the requesting processoris marked in L2 directory 302 as being in any of the M, T, Te, Tn or Igcoherency states. In response to a determination at block 604 that acastout is required, a cache castout operation is performed, asindicated at block 606. Concurrently, the master 232 determines at block610 whether or not to issue a bus read operation as a local operation ora global operation.

In a first embodiment in which each bus operation is initially issued asa local operation and issued as a local operation only once, thedetermination depicted at block 610 (and like determinations insucceeding figures) can simply represent a determination by the masterof whether or not the bus read operation has previously been issued as alocal bus read operation. In a second alternative embodiment in whichlocal bus operations can be retried, the determination depicted at block610 can represent a determination by the master of whether or not thebus read operation has previously been issued more than a thresholdnumber of times. In a third alternative embodiment, the determinationmade at block 610 can be based upon a prediction by the master ofwhether or not a local operation is likely to be successful (e.g., isthe HPC or is likely to find the HPC in the local coherency domain).Exemplary implementations of this third alternative embodiment aredescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 28-29.

In response to a determination at block 610 to issue a global bus readoperation rather than a local bus read operation, the process proceedsfrom block 610 to block 620, which is described below. If, on the otherhand, a determination is made at block 610 to issue a local bus readoperation, master 232 initiates a local bus read operation on its localinterconnect 114, as illustrated at block 612 and described below withreference to FIG. 13. The local bus read operation is broadcast onlywithin the local coherency domain (e.g., processing node 102) containingmaster 232. If master 232 receives a CR indicating “success” (block614), master 232 receives the requested memory block and returns therequested memory block (or at least a portion thereof) to the requestingprocessor core 200, as shown at block 624. Thereafter, the process endsat block 626.

Returning to block 614, if the CR for the local bus read operation doesnot indicate “success”, master 232 makes a determination at block 616whether or the CR definitively indicates that the bus read operationcannot be serviced within the local coherency domain and shouldtherefore be reissued as a global bus read operation. If so (e.g., if anL2 cache 230 in another coherency domain holds the requested memoryblock in the M state or Me state), the process passes to block 620,which is described below. If, on the other hand, the CR does notdefinitively indicate that the bus read operation cannot be servicedwithin the local coherency domain, the process returns from block 616 toblock 610, which illustrates master 232 again determining whether or notto issue a local bus read operation. In this case, master 232 may employin the determination any additional information provided by the CR.Following block 610, the process passes to either block 612, which isdescribed above, or to block 620.

Block 620 depicts master 230 issuing a global bus read operation asdescribed below with reference to FIG. 14. If the CR of the global busread operation does not indicate “success” at block 622, master 232repeats the global bus read operation at block 620 until a CR indicating“success” is received. If the CR of the global bus read operationindicates “success”, the master 232 receives the requested memory blockand returns the requested memory block (or at least a portion thereof)to the requesting processor core 200 at block 624. The processthereafter terminates at block 626.

Thus, assuming affinity between processes and their data within the samecoherency domain, operations, such as the CPU read operation depicted inFIG. 6, can frequently be serviced utilizing broadcast communicationlimited in scope to the coherency domain of the requesting master. Thecombination of data delivery domains as hereinbefore described andcoherency domains thus improves not only data access latency, but alsoreduces traffic on the system interconnect (and other localinterconnects) by limiting the scope of broadcast communication.

Referring now to FIG. 7A-7B, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of servicing a processor updateoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. As depicted, the process begins at block 700 in response toreceipt by an L2 cache 230 of an update request by an associated one ofthe processor cores 200 within the same processing unit 104. In responseto the receipt of the update request, master 232 of the L2 cache 230accesses L2 cache directory 302 to determine if the memory blockreferenced by the request address specified by the update request iscached within L2 cache 230 in M state, as shown at block 702. If so, themaster 232 updates the memory block in L2 cache 232 within the new datasupplied by the processor core 200, as illustrated at block 704.Thereafter, the update process ends at block 706.

As shown at blocks 710-712, if L2 cache directory 302 instead indicatesthat L2 cache 230 holds the specified memory block in the Me state,master 232 updates the state field 306 for the requested memory block toM state in addition to updating the memory block as shown at block 704.Thereafter, the process terminates at block 706.

Following page connector A to FIG. 7B, if L2 cache directory 302indicates that L2 cache 230 holds the requested memory block in eitherof the T or Te states (block 720), meaning that the L2 cache 230 is theHPC for the requested memory block and the requested memory block maypossibly be held in one or more other L2 caches 230, master 232 mustgain exclusive access to the requested memory block in order to performthe requested update to the memory block. The process by which master232 gains exclusive access to the requested memory block is shown atblock 722 and following blocks.

According to this process, master 232 updates the state of the requestedmemory block in the associated state field 306 of L2 cache directory 302to the M state, as depicted at block 722. This upgrade is cache state ispermissible without first informing other L2 caches 230 because, as theHPC, the L2 cache 230 has the authority to award itself exclusive accessto the requested memory block. As illustrated at block 724, the snooper236 of the L2 cache 230 provides “downgrade” partial responses tocompeting DClaim operations snooped on its local interconnect 114, ifany, by which other masters are seeking ownership of the requestedmemory block. These partial responses indicate that the other requestorsmust reissue any such competing operations as bus RWITM operations. Inaddition, as depicted at block 726, master 232 issues a global bus killoperation on system interconnect 110 to invalidate any other cachedcopies of the memory block, as described below with reference to FIG.20.

Master 232 next determines at blocks 790 and 728 whether or not the CRfor the bus kill operation indicates that the bus kill operationsuccessfully invalidated all other cached copies of the requested memoryblock or whether additional local or global “cleanup” (i.e.,invalidation of other cached copies) is required. If the CR indicatesthat additional cleanup is not required, the process proceeds throughpage connector C to block 704 of FIG. 7A, which has been described. Ifthe CR indicates that additional cleanup is required, master 232additionally determines whether the CR indicates that the other cachedcopy or copies of the requested memory block reside entirely within itslocal coherency domain or whether at least one copy of the requestedmemory block is cached outside the local coherency domain of master 232(blocks 790 and 728). If the CR indicates that each remaining cachedcopy of the requested memory block resides in the local coherency domainof master 232, the snooper 236 of the requesting L2 cache 230 continuesto downgrade active bus DClaim operations (block 786), and the master232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 continues to issue local bus killoperation (block 788) limited in scope to the local coherency domain ofmaster 232 until all other cached copies of the memory block areinvalidated. If the CR indicates that at least one remaining cached copyof the requested memory block resides in a remote coherency domain, theprocess returns to block 724, which has been described.

With reference now to block 780, if the access to the L2 cache directory302 indicates that the requested memory block is held in one of the Tnor Ten states, then master 232 knows that the requesting L2 cache 230 isthe HPC for the requested memory block and that any other cached copy ofthe requested memory block is held by a cache in its local coherencydomain. Accordingly, master 232 updates the state of the requestedmemory block in the associated state field 306 of L2 cache directory 302to the M state, as depicted at block 784. In addition, the snooper 236of the requesting L2 cache 230 provides “downgrade” partial responses toany competing DClaim operations snooped on its local interconnect 114(block 786), and the master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 continuesto issue local bus kill operation (block 788) limited in scope to thelocal coherency domain of master 232 until any other cached copies ofthe memory block are invalidated. If the master 232 determines byreference to the CR for a local bus kill operation that no further localcleanup is required (block 790), the process passes through block 728and page connector C to block 704, which has been described.

Referring now to block 730 of FIG. 7A, if the access to L2 cachedirectory 302 indicates that the requested memory block is held in theSr or S states, the requesting L2 cache 230 is not the HPC for therequested memory block, and master 232 must gain ownership of therequested memory block from the HPC, if any, or in the absence of anHPC, the LPC, prior to updating the memory block.

Accordingly, master 232 first determines at block 731 whether to issue abus DClaim operation as a local or global operation. If master 232 makesa determination to issue a global bus DClaim operation, the processproceeds to block 740, which is described below. In response to adetermination at block 731 to issue a bus DClaim operation as a localoperation, master 232 issues a local bus DClaim operation at block 732,as described below in greater detail with reference to FIG. 17. Master232 then awaits receipt of the CR of the local bus DClaim operation,which is represented by the collection of decision blocks 734, 736 and738. If the CR indicates “retry” (block 734), the process returns toblock 731, which has been described. If the CR alternatively indicatesdefinitively that the bus DClaim operation cannot be serviced with thelocal coherency domain (block 736), the process proceeds to block 740,which is described below. If the CR alternatively indicates “downgrade”,meaning that another requestor has obtained ownership of the requestedmemory block via a bus DClaim operation, the process passes to block748, which is described below. If the CR alternatively indicates thatmaster 232 has been awarded ownership of the requested memory block bythe HPC based upon the local bus DClaim operation, the process passesthrough page connector D to block 790 of FIG. 7B and following blocks,which have been described.

Block 740 depicts master 232 issuing a global bus DClaim operation, asdescribed below with respect to FIG. 18. Master 232 next determines atblocks 742-744 whether or not the CR for the global bus DClaim operationindicates that it succeeded, should be retried, or was “downgraded” to aRWITM operation. If the CR indicates that the bus DClaim operationshould be retried (block 742), master 232 reissues a global bus DClaimoperation at block 740 and continues to do so until a CR other than“retry” is received. If the CR is received indicating that the globalbus DClaim operation has been downgraded in response to anotherrequestor successfully issuing a bus DClaim operation targeting therequested memory block, the process proceeds to block 746, which isdescribed below. If the CR alternatively indicates that master 232 hasbeen awarded ownership of the requested memory block by the HPC basedupon the global bus DClaim operation, the process passes through pageconnector D to block 790 of FIG. 7B and following blocks, which havebeen described.

Block 746 depicts master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 determiningwhether or not to issue a bus RWITM operation as a local or globaloperation. If master 232 elects to issue a global RWITM operation, theprocess passes to block 754, which is described below. If, however,master 232 elects to issue a local bus RWITM operation, the processproceeds to block 748, which illustrates master 232 issuing a local busRWITM operation and awaiting the associated CR. As indicated at block750, if the CR indicates “retry”, the process returns to block 746,which represents master 232 again determining whether to issue a localor global RWITM operation utilizing the additional information, if any,provided in the retry CR. If the CR to the local bus RWTIM operationissued at block 748 does not indicate “retry” (block 750) but insteadindicates that the bus RWITM operation was successful in obtainingownership of the requested memory block (block 752), the process passesthrough page connector D to block 790 of FIG. 7B, which has beendescribed. If master 232 determines at block 752 that the CR to thelocal bus RWITM operation indicates that the operation cannot beserviced within the local coherency domain, the process passes to block754 and following blocks.

Blocks 754 and 756 depict master 232 iteratively issuing a global busRWITM operation for the requested memory block, as described below withreference to FIGS. 16A-16B, until a CR other than “retry” is received.In response to master 232 receiving a non-retry CR indicating that itsucceeded in obtaining ownership of the requested memory block (block756), the process passes through page connector D to block 790 andfollowing blocks, which have been described.

With reference now to block 760, if a negative determination has beenmade at blocks 702, 710, 720, 5502 and 730, L2 cache 230 does not hold avalid copy of the requested memory block. Accordingly, as indicated atblocks 760 and 770, L2 cache 230 performs a cache castout operation ifneeded to allocate a cache line for the requested memory block.Thereafter, the process passes to block 746 and following blocks asdescribed above.

With reference now to FIGS. 8A-8B, there is depicted a high levellogical flowchart of an exemplary method of servicing a processor writeoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 800 in response to receipt by anL2 cache 230 of a write request by an associated one of the processorcores 200 within the same processing unit 104. In response to thereceipt of the write request, master 232 of the L2 cache 230 accesses L2cache directory 302 to determine if the memory block referenced by therequest address specified by the update request is cached within L2cache 230 in M state, as shown at block 802. If so, the master 232writes the data supplied by the processor core 200 into L2 cache array300, as illustrated at block 804. Thereafter, the process ends at block806.

As shown at blocks 810-812, if L2 cache directory 302 instead indicatesthat L2 cache 230 holds the specified memory block in the Me state,master 232 updates the state field 306 for the requested memory block toM state in addition to writing the memory block as shown at block 804.Thereafter, the process terminates at block 806.

Passing through page connector E to block 820 of FIG. 8B, if L2 cachedirectory 302 indicates that L2 cache 230 holds the requested memoryblock in either of the T or Te states, meaning that the L2 cache 230 isthe HPC for the requested memory block and the requested memory blockmay possibly be held in one or more other L2 caches 230, master 232 mustgain exclusive access to the requested memory block in order to performthe requested write to the memory block. The process by which master 232gains exclusive access to the requested memory block is shown at block822 and following blocks.

According to this process, master 232 updates the state of the requestedmemory block in the associated state field 306 of L2 cache directory 302to the M state, as depicted at block 822. As illustrated at block 824,the snooper 236 of the requesting L2 cache 230 provides “downgrade”partial responses to competing DClaim operations snooped on its localinterconnect 114 to attempt to force other requestors for the memoryblock to reissue any such competing requests as RWITM requests. Inaddition, as depicted at block 826, master 232 issues a global bus killoperation to invalidate any other cached copies of the memory block, asdescribed in detail below with reference to FIG. 20.

Master 232 next determines at blocks 890 and 828 whether or not the CRfor the bus kill operation indicates that the bus kill operationsuccessfully invalidated all other cached copies of the requested memoryblock or whether additional local or global “cleanup” (i.e.,invalidation of other cached copies) is required. If the CR indicatesthat additional cleanup is not required, the process proceeds throughpage connector H to block 804 of FIG. 8A, which has been described. Ifthe CR indicates that additional cleanup is required, master 232additionally determines whether the CR indicates that the other cachedcopy or copies of the requested memory block reside entirely within itslocal coherency domain (block 890) or whether at least one copy of therequested memory block is cached outside the local coherency domain ofmaster 232 (block 828). If the CR indicates that each remaining cachedcopy of the requested memory block resides in the local coherency domainof master 232, the snooper 236 of the requesting L2 cache 230 continuesto downgrade active bus DClaim operations (block 876), and the master232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 continues to issue local bus killoperation (block 878) limited in scope to the local coherency domain ofmaster 232 until all other cached copies of the memory block areinvalidated. If the CR indicates that at least one remaining cached copyof the requested memory block resides in a remote coherency domain, theprocess returns to block 824, which has been described.

With reference now to block 870, if the access to the L2 cache directory302 indicates that the requested memory block is held in one of the Tnor Ten states, then master 232 knows that the requesting L2 cache 230 isthe HPC for the requested memory block and that any other cached copy ofthe requested memory block is held by another cache in its localcoherency domain. Accordingly, master 232 updates the state of therequested memory block in the associated state field 306 of L2 cachedirectory 302 to the M state, as depicted at block 874. In addition, thesnooper 236 of the requesting L2 cache 230 provides “downgrade” partialresponses to any competing DClaim operations snooped on its localinterconnect 114 (block 876), and the master 232 of the requesting L2cache 230 continues to issue local bus kill operation (block 878)limited in scope to the local coherency domain of master 232 until anyother cached copies of the memory block are invalidated. If the master232 determines by reference to the CR for a local bus kill operationthat no further local cleanup is required (block 890), the processpasses through block 828 and page connector H to block 804, which hasbeen described.

Referring now to block 830 of FIG. 8A, if the access to L2 cachedirectory 302 indicates that the requested memory block is held in theSr or S states, the requesting L2 cache 230 is not the HPC for therequested memory block, and master 232 must gain ownership of therequested memory block from the HPC, if any, or in the absence of anHPC, the LPC, prior to writing the memory block. Accordingly, master 232first determines at block 850 whether to issue a bus DBCZ operation as alocal or global operation.

If master 232 elects to issue a global bus DCBZ operation, the processpasses to block 860, which is described below. If, however, master 232elects to issue a local bus DCBZ operation, the process proceeds toblock 852, which illustrates master 232 issuing a local bus DCBZoperation, as described below with reference to FIG. 21, and thenawaiting the associated CR. As indicated at block 854, if the CR for thelocal bus DCBZ operation indicates “retry”, the process returns to block850, which represents master 232 again determining whether to issue alocal or global bus DCBZ operation utilizing the additional information,if any, provided in the retry CR. If the CR to the local bus DCBZoperation issued at block 852 does not indicate “retry” (block 854) butinstead indicates that the bus RWITM operation was successful inobtaining ownership of the requested memory block (block 856), theprocess passes through page connector G to block 890 of FIG. 8B, whichhas been described. If master 232 determines at block 856 that the CR tothe local bus DCBZ operation indicates that the operation cannot beserviced within the local coherency domain, the process passes to block860 and following blocks.

Block 860 illustrates master 232 issuing a global bus DCBZ operation, asdescribed below with respect to FIG. 22. As shown at block 862, master232 reissues the global bus DCBZ operation at block 860 until a CR otherthan “retry” is received. Following receipt of a CR to the global busDCBZ operation other than “retry” at block 862, the process passesthrough page connector G to block 890 of FIG. 8B and following blocks,which have been described.

With reference now to block 840, if a negative determination has beenmade at blocks 802, 810, 820, 870 and 830, L2 cache 230 does not hold avalid copy of the requested memory block. Accordingly, as indicated atblock 840 and 842, L2 cache 230 performs a cache castout operation ifneeded to allocate a cache line for the requested memory block.Thereafter, the process passes to block 850 and following blocks, whichhave been described.

Referring now to FIG. 9, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing an I/O read operation ina data processing system in accordance with the present invention. Asshown, the process begins at block 900 in response to receipt by the I/Ocontroller 214 of a processing unit 104 of an I/O read request by anattached I/O device 216. In response to receipt of the I/O read request,I/O controller 214 determines at block 902 whether or not to issue aglobal or local bus read operation to obtain the requested memory block.

If the I/O controller 214 elects to issue a global bus DCBZ operation,the process passes to block 904, which is described below. If, however,I/O controller 214 elects to issue a local bus read operation, theprocess proceeds to block 920, which illustrates I/O controller 214issuing a local bus read operation, as described below with reference toFIG. 13, and then awaiting the associated CR. As indicated at block 922,if the CR indicates “success”, I/O controller 214 receives the requestedmemory block and then routes the requested memory block to I/O device216, as shown at block 908. Thereafter, the process ends at block 910.

Returning to block 922, if the CR for the local bus read operationissued at block 920 does not indicate “success”, the process passes toblock 924, which depicts I/O controller 214 determining whether the CRdefinitively indicates that a bus read operation cannot be servicedwithin the local coherency domain. If not, the process returns to block902, which represents I/O controller 214 again determining whether toissue a local or global bus read operation utilizing the additionalinformation, if any, provided in the CR. In response to I/O controller214 electing at block 902 to issue a global bus read operation or inresponse to I/O controller 214 determining at block 924 that the CR tothe local bus read operation definitively indicates that the bus readoperation cannot be serviced within the local coherency domain, theprocess passes to block 906 and following blocks.

Block 906 depicts I/O controller 214 issuing a global bus read operationon system interconnect 110 via local interconnect 114, as describedbelow with reference to FIGS. 14A-14B. As indicated at block 906, I/Ocontroller 214 continues to issue the bus read operation until a CR isreceived indicating “success”. Once the global bus read operationsucceeds and the requested memory block is received, I/O controller 214routes the data received in response to the global bus read operation tothe requesting I/O device 216, as illustrated at block 908. The processthereafter terminates at block 910.

Referring now to FIG. 10, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing an I/O write operation ina data processing system in accordance with the present invention. Asshown, the process begins at block 1000 in response to receipt by theI/O controller 214 of a processing unit 104 of an I/O write request byan attached I/O device 216. In response to receipt of the I/O writerequest, I/O controller 214 determines at block 1002 whether or not toissue a global or local bus write operation to obtain the requestedmemory block.

If I/O controller 214 elects to issue a global bus write operation, theprocess passes to block 1020, which is described below. If, however, I/Ocontroller 214 elects to issue a local bus write operation, the processproceeds to block 1004, which illustrates I/O controller 214 issuing alocal bus write operation, as described below with reference to FIG. 25,and then awaiting the associated CR. As indicated at block 1006, if theCR indicates “retry local”, meaning that the local bus write operationcan definitely be serviced within the local coherency domain if retried,I/O controller 214 reissues the local bus write operation at block 1004.If I/O controller 214 receives a CR providing more equivocalinformation, for example, simply “retry” (block 1008), the processreturns block 1002, which has been described. Alternatively, if I/Ocontroller 214 receives a CR indicating definitively that the bus writeoperation cannot be serviced within the local coherency domain (block1010), the process proceeds to block 1020, which is described below.Finally, if I/O controller 214 receives a CR indicating that it has beenawarded ownership of the requested memory block, the process passes fromblock 1004 through blocks 1006, 1008 and 1010 to block 1024 andfollowing blocks, which illustrate I/O controller 214 performing cleanupoperations, if necessary, as described below.

Referring now to block 1020, I/O controller 214 issues a global bus I/Owrite operation, as described below with reference to FIG. 10. Asindicated at block 1022, I/O controller 214 continues to issue theglobal bus I/O write operation until a CR other than “retry” isreceived. If the CR for the global bus write operation issued at block1020 indicates that no other snooper holds a valid copy of the requestedmemory block (blocks 1024 and 1040), the process ends at block 1026 withthe attached I/O device 216 able to write to the requested memory block.If, however, I/O controller 214 determines at block 1024 that the CRindicates that at least one stale cached copy of the requested memoryblock remains outside of its local coherency domain, I/O controller 214performs a global “cleanup” by downgrading any conflicting DClaimoperations it snoops, as shown at block 1030, and issuing global buskill operations, as depicted at block 1032, until a CR is received atblock 1024 indicating that no stale cached copies of the requestedmemory block remain outside of the local coherency domain.

If I/O controller 214 determines at block 1040 that the CR indicatesthat no stale cached copies of the requested memory block remain outsideof the local coherency domain but at least one stale cached copy of therequested memory block remains within its local coherency domain, I/Ocontroller 214 performs a local “cleanup” by downgrading any conflictingDClaim operations it snoops, as shown at block 1042, and issuing localbus kill operations, as depicted at block 1044 until a CR is receivedindicating that no stale cached copies of the requested memory blockremain within data processing system 100 (blocks 1024 and 1040). Oncecleanup operations are complete, the process ends at block 1041.

As has been described, the implementation of Tn and Ten coherency statesprovides an indication of whether a possibly shared memory block isadditionally cached only within the local coherency domain.Consequently, when a requestor within the same coherency domain as acache holding a memory block in one of the Tn or Ten states issues anexclusive access operation (e.g., a bus DClaim, bus RWITM, bus DCBZ orbus write operation) for the memory block, the scope of broadcastoperations, such as bus kill operations, can advantageously berestricted to the local coherency domain, reducing interconnectbandwidth utilization.

With reference now to FIG. 11, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing an bus I/O partial writeoperation in accordance with the present invention. As shown, theprocess begins at block 1120 in response to receipt by the I/Ocontroller 214 of a processing unit 104 of an I/O partial write request(i.e., a request to write a portion of a memory block) by an attachedI/O device 216. In response to receipt of the I/O partial write request,I/O controller 214 issues a bus I/O partial write operation on systeminterconnect 110 via local interconnect 114, as depicted at block 1122and described below with reference to FIG. 27. As indicated at block1124, I/O controller 214 continues to issue the bus partial writeoperation until a CR other than “retry” is received.

If the CR indicates that no other snooper holds a valid copy of therequested memory block, the process passes from block 1124 to block 1126and ends at block 1128. If, however, I/O controller 214 determines atblock 1126 that the CR indicates that at least one stale cached copy ofthe requested memory block may remain, I/O controller 214 performs“cleanup” by downgrading any conflicting DClaim operations snooped onsystem interconnect 110, as shown at block 1130, and issuing bus killoperations, as depicted at block 1132, until a CR is received at block1126 indicating that no stale cached copies of the requested memoryblock remain in data processing system 100. Once cleanup operations arecomplete, the process ends at block 1128.

Referring now to FIG. 12, a high level logical flowchart of an exemplarycache castout operation for a data processing system in accordance withthe present invention. The illustrated process begins at block 1200 whenan L2 cache 230 determines that a castout of a cache line is needed, forexample, at block 606 of FIG. 6, block 770 of FIG. 7A, or block 842 ofFIG. 8A. To perform the castout operation, the L2 cache 230 firstdetermines at block 1202 whether or not the victim entry selected forreplacement from the target congruence class is in the Ig state. If so,an address-only local bus castout operation is issued at block 1212 and,if necessary, retried (as indicated by block 1214) in order to updatethe corresponding domain indicator in the LPC system memory 108. Asnoted above, the castout of the Ig entry is preferably performed only asa local operation, meaning that if the LPC system memory 108 is notwithin the local coherency domain, the CR does not indicate “retrylocal” at block 1214. Thereafter, the cache castout operation ends atblock 1224.

Returning to block 1202, if the victim entry selected for replacement isnot in the Ig state, the L2 cache 230 determines at block 1204 whetherto issue a global or local bus castout operation for the selected memoryblock. If L2 cache 230 elects to issue a global bus castout operation,the process passes to block 1220, which is described below. If, however,L2 cache 230 elects to issue a local bus castout operation, the processproceeds to block 1206, which illustrates the L2 cache 230 issuing alocal bus castout operation, as described above with reference to FIG.23, and then awaiting the associated CR. As indicated at block 1208, ifthe CR indicates “retry local”, meaning that the local bus writeoperation can definitely be serviced within the local coherency domainif retried, L2 cache 230 reissues the local bus castout operation atblock 1206. Alternatively, if L2 cache 230 receives a CR indicatingdefinitively that the bus write operation cannot be serviced within thelocal coherency domain (block 1210), the process proceeds to block 1220,which is described below. Finally, if L2 cache 230 receives a CRindicating that the castout of the selected memory block succeeded, theprocess simply ends at block 1224.

Block 1220 depicts L2 cache 230 issuing a global bus castout operationon system interconnect 110 via local interconnect 114, as describedbelow with reference to FIG. 24. As indicated at block 1222, the L2cache 230 reissues the global bus castout operation until a CR otherthan “retry” is received. Thereafter, the process ends at block 1224.

B. Interconnect Operations

Referring now to FIGS. 13-27, exemplary local and global bus operationsin an illustrative data processing system 100 will now be described.Referring first to FIG. 13, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus readoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 1300, for example, at block 612of FIG. 6, with an L2 cache 230 issuing a local bus read operation onits local interconnect 114. The various partial responses that snoopers222, 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 in response tosnooping the local bus read operation are represented in FIG. 13 by theoutcomes of decision blocks 1302, 1310, 1312, 1314, 1320, 1330, 1332,1340, 1344, 1346 and 1348. These partial responses in turn determine theCR for the local bus read operation.

As shown at block 1302, if a snooper 236 of an L2 cache 230 affirms thelocal bus read operation with a partial response indicating that the L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in either the M or Me state,the process proceeds from block 1302 to block 1304. Block 1304 indicatesthe operations of the requesting L2 cache 230 and the affirming L2 cache230 in response to the local bus read operation. In particular, thesnooper 236 in the affirming L2 cache 230 updates the cache state of therequested memory block from M to Tn or from Me to Ten. In addition, thesnooper 236 in the affirming L2 cache 230 may initiate transmission ofthe requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230 prior toreceipt of the CR (i.e., provides “early” data). Upon receipt, themaster 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places the requested memoryblock in L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state. The process ends withdistributed response logic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”, asdepicted at block 1308.

If, on the other hand, a snooper 236 of an L2 cache 230 affirms thelocal bus read operation with a partial response indicating that the L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the Tx state (block 1310)and an Sr′ snooper 236 also affirms the bus read operation (block 1312),the process passes to block 1318. Block 1318 represents the Sr′ snooper236 updating the cache state of the requested memory block to S andinitiating transmission of the requested memory block to the requestingL2 cache 230 prior to receipt of the CR (i.e., provides “early” data).The Tx snooper 236 remains unchanged. Upon receipt of the requestedmemory block, the master 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places therequested memory block in L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state. Theprocess ends with distributed response logic 210 generating a CRindicating “success”, as depicted at block 1308.

If the complex of partial responses includes a Tx snooper 236 affirmingthe local bus read operation (block 1310), no Sr′ snooper 236 affirmingthe bus read operation (block 1312), and a snooper 236 providing anpartial response (e.g., a type of retry) indicating that an Sr′ snooper236 may be possibly hidden in the local data delivery domain (block1314), the process passes to block 1316. Block 1316 represents the Txsnooper 236 that affirmed the bus read operation initiating transmissionof the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230 afterreceipt of the CR (i.e., provides “late” data) and retaining therequested memory block in the Tx state. Upon receipt, the master 232 inthe requesting L2 cache 230 places the requested memory block in L2cache directory 300 in the S state (since an Sr′ snooper 236 may behidden and only one Sr′ snooper 236 is permitted in each data deliverydomain for the requested memory block). The process ends withdistributed response logic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”, asdepicted at block 1308.

If the complex of partial responses includes a T or Te snooper 236affirming the local bus read operation (block 1310), no Sr′ snooper 236affirming the bus read operation (block 1312), and no snooper 236providing a partial response that may possibly hide a Sr′ snooper 236(block 1314), the process passes to block 1306. Block 1306 representsthe T or Te snooper 236 that affirmed the bus read operation initiatingtransmission of the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache230 after receipt of the CR (i.e., provides “late” data) and retainingthe requested memory block in the T or Te state. Upon receipt, themaster 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places the requested memoryblock in L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state (since no other Sr′ snooper236 exists for the requested memory block in the local data deliverydomain). The process ends with distributed response logic 210 generatinga CR indicating “success”, as depicted at block 1308.

Referring now to block 1320, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms thelocal bus read operation, but an Sr′ snooper 236 affirms the local busread operation, the local bus read operation is serviced in accordancewith block 1322. In particular, the Sr′ snooper 236 affirming the busread operation initiates transmission of the requested memory block tothe requesting L2 cache 230 prior to receipt of CR and updates the stateof the requested memory block in its L2 cache directory 302 to the Sstate. The master 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places therequested memory block in its L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state. Theprocess ends with distributed response logic 210 generating a CRindicating “success”, as depicted at block 1308.

With reference now to block 1324, if no M, Me, Tx or Sr′ snooper 236affirms the local bus read operation, but an L2 cache 230 provides apartial response affirming the local bus read operation indicating thatthe L2 cache 230 holds the address tag of the requested memory block inthe Ig state. If no M, Me, Tx or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden byan incomplete partial response (block 1332), distributed response logic210 provides a “go global” CR, as depicted at block 3164. If, on theother hand, an Ig snooper 236 affirms the local bus read operation andthe complex of partial responses indicates an M, Me, Tx or Sr′ snooper236 is possibly hidden, response logic 210 generates a “retry” CR, asdepicted at block 1342.

Turning now to block 1330, if no M, Me, Tx, Sr′ or Ig snooper 236affirms the local bus read operation, and further, if no snooper 222provides a partial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., theLPC) for the requested memory block, the process passes to block 1332,which has been described. If, however, no M, Me, Tx, Sr′ or Ig snooper236 affirms the local bus read operation, and further, if a snooper 222provides a partial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., theLPC) for the requested memory block, the process proceeds to block 1340.

Referring now to block 1340, if a snooper 222 provides a partialresponse indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for therequested memory block but does not affirm the local bus read operation,response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “retry”, as depicted atblock 1342. If, however, a snooper 222 affirms the local bus readoperation, the process proceeds to block 1344. As indicated by decisionblock 1344, response logic 210 also generates a “retry” CR at block 1342if a memory controller snooper 222 affirms the bus read operation and anL2 cache snooper 236 provides a partial response indicating that it mayhold the requested memory block in one of the M, Me, Tx or Ig states butcannot affirm the local bus read operation. In each of these cases,response logic 210 generates a “retry” CR because the bus readoperation, if reissued as a local operation, may be able to be servicedwithout resorting to a global broadcast.

With reference now to block 1346, if no M, Me, Tx or Ig snooper 236affirms the local bus read operation, no M, Me, Tx or Ig snooper 236 ispossibly hidden, and a memory controller snooper 222 affirms the localbus read operation, the snooper 222 affirming the local bus readoperation provides the requested memory block and the associated domainindicator 504 to the requesting L2 cache 230 in response to the CR, asdepicted at each of blocks 1350, 1352 and 1354. As shown at blocks 1350,1352 and 1354, the master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 handles therequested memory block in accordance with the CR and the state of thedomain indicator 504. In particular, if master 232 determines at block1360 that the domain indicator 3004 is reset to “global”, meaning that amodified copy of the requested memory block may be cached outside thelocal domain, master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 discards therequested memory block, remaining in the I state with respect to therequested memory block. In addition, in light of the “global” domainindicator 504, master 232 interprets the CR as indicating “go global”(block 1364), meaning that master 232 will reissue the bus readoperation as a global bus read operation.

If, on the other hand, the domain indicator 504 is set to indicate“local” (block 1360), the master 232 of the requesting cache 230interprets the CR as indicating “success” (block 1308) and places boththe requested memory block and domain indicator 504 within its L2 cachearray 300. The master 232 also sets the state field 306 associated withthe requested memory block to a state indicated by the CR. Inparticular, if the partial responses and hence the CR indicate that aSr′ snooper 236 may be hidden (block 1346), the requesting L2 cache 230holds the requested memory block in the S state (block 1350) becauseonly one Sr copy of the memory block is permitted in any domain.Alternatively, if the partial responses and CR indicate that no Sr′snooper 236 may be hidden, but an S′ snooper 236 may be hidden, therequesting L2 cache 236 holds the requested memory block in the Sr state(block 1352). Finally, if neither a Sr′ or S′ snooper 236 may bepossibly hidden (block 1348), the requesting L2 cache 230 holds therequested memory block in the Me state (block 1354) because therequesting L2 cache 230 is guaranteed to be the only cache system-wideholding the requested memory block.

With reference now to FIGS. 14A-14B, there is depicted a high levellogical flowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus readoperation in a data processing system implementing Tn and Ten coherencystates in accordance with the present invention. The process begins atblock 1400, for example, at block 620 of FIG. 6, with an L2 cache 230issuing a global bus read operation on its local interconnect 114. Thevarious partial responses that snoopers 222, 236 may provide todistributed response logic 210 in response to snooping the global busread operation are represented in FIG. 14A by the outcomes of decisionblocks 1402, 1410, 1412, 1414, 1420, 1430, 1440, 1442, 1444, and 1446.These partial responses in turn determine the CR for the global bus readoperation.

As shown at block 1402, if a snooper 236 of an L2 cache 230 affirms theglobal bus read operation with a partial response indicating that the L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in either the M or Me state,the process proceeds from block 1402 through page connector J to block1480 of FIG. 14B. Block 1480 represents the fact that the M or Mesnooper 236 updates its cache state differently depending upon whetherthe M or Me snooper 236 is local (i.e., within the same coherencydomain) as the requesting L2 cache 230 as indicated by the scopeindicator in the global bus read operation. In either case, the snooper236 in the affirming L2 cache 230 may initiate transmission of therequested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230 prior to receiptof the CR (i.e., provides “early” data), and upon receipt, the master232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places the requested memory block inits L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state (blocks 1481 and 1482). However,the snooper 236 in the affirming L2 cache 230 updates the state of therequested memory block from M to T or from Me to Te if the snooper 236is not local to the requesting L2 cache 230 (block 1481) and updates thestate of the requesting memory block from M to Tn or from Me to Ten ifthe snooper 236 is local (block 1482). The process then returns to FIG.14A through page connector N and ends with distributed response logic210 generating a CR indicating “success”, as depicted at block 1408.

If a snooper 236 of an L2 cache 230 affirms the global bus readoperation with a partial response indicating that the L2 cache 230 holdsthe requested memory block in any the T, Tn, Te or Ten states(generically designated in block 1410 as Tx) and an Sr′ snooper 236 alsoaffirms the bus read operation (block 1412), the process passes throughpage connector M to block 1492. Block 1492 indicates that the affirmingTx snooper 236 updates the state of the requested memory blockdifferently depending upon whether the scope indicator of the global busread operation indicated that the snooper 236 is within the coherencydomain of the requesting L2 cache 230. In either case, the Sr′ snooper236 updates the state of the requested memory block to S and initiatestransmission of the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache230 prior to receipt of the CR (blocks 1494 and 1495). Upon receipt, themaster 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places the requested memoryblock in L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state (blocks 1494 and 1495). Inaddition, the Tx snooper 236 updates the state of the requested memoryblock, if necessary, from Tn to T or from Ten to Te if the snooper 236is not local to the requesting L2 cache 230 (block 1494), but leaves thestate of the requested memory block unchanged if the Tx snooper 236 islocal to the requesting L2 cache (block 1495). The process then returnsto FIG. 14A through page connector N and ends with distributed responselogic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”, as depicted at block1408.

If the complex of partial responses includes a Tx snooper 236 affirmingthe global bus read operation (block 1410), no Sr′ snooper 236 affirmingthe bus read operation (block 1412), and a snooper 236 providing anpartial response (e.g., a type of retry) indicating that an Sr′ snooper236 may exist in the local data delivery domain but did not affirm theglobal bus read operation, the process passes through page connector Lto block 1488 of FIG. 14B. Block 1488 indicates that the affirming Txsnooper 236 updates the state of the requested memory block differentlydepending upon whether the scope indicator of the global bus readoperation indicated that the snooper 236 is within the coherency domainof the requesting L2 cache 230. In either case, the Tx snooper 236 thataffirmed the global bus read operation initiates transmission of therequested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230 after receipt ofthe CR (blocks 1489 and 1490). Upon receipt, the master 232 in therequesting L2 cache 230 places the requested memory block in L2 cachedirectory 300 in the S state (since an Sr′ snooper 236 may be hiddenwithin the local domain the requesting cache 236 and only one Sr′snooper 236 is permitted in each domain for the requested memory block).In addition, the Tx snooper 236 updates the state of the requestedmemory block, if necessary, from Tn to T or from Ten to Te if thesnooper 236 is not local to the requesting L2 cache 230 (block 1489),but leaves the state of the requested memory block unchanged if the Txsnooper 236 is local to the requesting L2 cache (block 1490). Theprocess then returns to FIG. 14A through page connector N and ends withdistributed response logic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”, asdepicted at block 1408.

If the complex of partial responses includes a Tx snooper 236 affirmingthe global bus read operation, no Sr′ snooper 236 affirming the bus readoperation, and no snooper 236 providing a partial response that may hidea Sr′ snooper 236, the process passes through page connector K to block1484 of FIG. 14B. Block 1484 indicates that the affirming Tx snooper 236updates the state of the requested memory block differently dependingupon whether the scope indicator of the global bus read operationindicated that the snooper 236 is within the coherency domain of therequesting L2 cache 230. In either case, the Tx snooper 236 thataffirmed the global bus read operation initiates transmission of therequested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230 after receipt ofthe CR (i.e., provides “late” data), the master 232 in the requesting L2cache 230 places the requested memory block in its L2 cache array 300 inthe Sr state (since no other Sr′ snooper 236 exists for the requestedmemory block in the local domain). In addition, the Tx snooper 236updates the state of the requested memory block, if necessary, from Tnto T or from Ten to Te if the snooper 236 is not local to the requestingL2 cache 230 (block 1485), but leaves the state of the requested memoryblock unchanged if the Tx snooper 236 is local to the requesting L2cache (block 1486). The process then returns to FIG. 14A through pageconnector N and ends with distributed response logic 210 generating a CRindicating “success”, as depicted at block 1408.

Referring now to block 1420, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms theglobal bus read operation, but an Sr′ snooper 236 affirms the global busread operation, the global bus read operation is serviced in accordancewith block 1422. In particular, the Sr′ snooper 236 that affirmed theglobal bus read operation initiates transmission of the requested memoryblock to the requesting L2 cache 230 prior to receipt of CR and updatesthe state of the requested memory block in its L2 cache directory 302 tothe S state. The master 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 places therequested memory block in L2 cache array 300 in the Sr state. Theprocess ends with distributed response logic 210 generating a CRindicating “success”, as depicted at block 1408.

Turning now to block 1430, if no M, Me, Tx or Sr′ snooper 236 affirmsthe global bus read operation, and further, if no snooper 222 provides apartial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) forthe requested memory block, an error occurs that halts processing asshown at block 1432 because every memory block is required to have anLPC.

Referring now to block 1440, if a snooper 222 provides a partialresponse indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for therequested memory block but does not affirm the global bus readoperation, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “retry”, asdepicted at block 1450. As indicated by decision block 1442, responselogic 210 similarly generates a “retry” CR at block 1450 if a memorycontroller snooper 222 affirms the global bus read operation and an L2cache snooper 236 provides a partial response indicating that it mayhold the requested memory block in one of the M, Me, or Tx states butcannot affirm the global bus read operation. In each of these cases,response logic 210 generates a “retry” CR to cause the operation to bereissued because one of the possibly hidden snoopers 236 may be requiredto source the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230.

With reference now to block 1444, if no M, Me, Tx or Sr′ snooper 236affirms the bus read operation, no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 is possiblyhidden, and a memory controller snooper 222 affirms the global bus readoperation, the snooper 222 affirming the global bus read operationprovides the requested memory block and the associated domain indicator504 to the requesting L2 cache 230 in response to the CR, as depicted ateach of blocks 1452 and 1454. As shown at blocks 1444, 1446, 1452, 1454and 1456, the master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 handles therequested memory block in accordance with the partial responses compiledinto the “success” CR represented at block 1408. In particular, if theCR indicates that no Sr′ or S′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden, therequesting L2 cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the Me state(block 1456); the requesting L2 cache 230 holds the requested memoryblock in the Sr state if no Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden and a S′snooper 236 is possibly hidden; and the requesting L2 cache 230 holdsthe requested memory block in the S state if an Sr′ snooper 236 ispossibly hidden.

In response to the CR, the memory controller snooper 222 that is the LPCfor the requested memory block then determines whether to update thedomain indicator for the requested memory block, as illustrated atblocks 1460, 1462, 1470, 1472 and 1474. If the CR indicates that the newcache state for the requested memory block is Me, the LPC snooper 222determines whether it is within the same domain as the requesting L2cache 230 (block 1460), for example, by reference to the scope indicatorin the global bus read operation, and whether the domain indicator 504indicates local or global (blocks 1460 and 1472). If the LPC is withinthe same domain as the requesting L2 cache 230 (block 1460), the LPCsnooper 222 sets the domain indicator 504 to “local” if it is reset to“global” (block 1462 and 1464). If the LPC is not within the same domainas the requesting L2 cache 230 (block 1460), the LPC snooper 222 resetsthe domain indicator 504 to “global” if it is set to “local” (block 1472and 1474).

If the CR indicates that the new cache state for the requested memoryblock is S or Sr, the LPC snooper 222 similarly determines whether it iswithin the same domain as the requesting L2 cache 230 (block 1470) andwhether the domain indicator 504 indicates local or global (block 1472).If the LPC is within the same domain as the requesting L2 cache 230(block 1470), no update to the domain indicator 504 is required. If,however, the LPC is not within the same domain as the requesting L2cache 230 (block 1470), the LPC snooper 222 resets the domain indicator504 to “global” if it is set to “local” (block 1472 and 1474). Thus, LPCsnooper 222 updates the domain indicator 504, if required, in responseto receipt of the CR.

Referring now to FIG. 15, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus RWITMoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 1500, for example, with a master232 of an L2 cache 230 issuing a local bus RWITM operation its localinterconnect 114 at block 748 of FIG. 7A. The various partial responsesthat snoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 arerepresented in FIG. 15 by the outcomes of decision blocks 1502, 1510,1512, 1520, 1524, 1530, 1534, 1540 and 1544. These partial responses inturn determine the CR for the local bus RWITM operation.

If a snooper 236 affirms the local bus RWITM operation with a partialresponse indicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236holds the requested memory block in either the M or Me state as shown atblock 1502, the process proceeds from block 1502 to block 1504. Block1504 indicates the operations of the requesting L2 cache 230 and theaffirming L2 cache 230 in response to the local bus RWITM operation. Inparticular, the snooper 236 in the affirming L2 cache 230 updates thecache state of the requested memory block from the M or Me state to theI state and may initiate transmission of the requested memory block tothe requesting L2 cache 230 prior to receipt of the CR (i.e., provides“early” data). Upon receipt, the master 232 in the requesting L2 cache230 places the requested memory block in its L2 cache array 300 in the Mstate. The process ends with distributed response logic 210 generating aCR indicating “success”, as depicted at block 1506.

Referring to block 1510, if a snooper 236 affirms the local bus RWITMoperation with a partial response indicating that the L2 cache 230containing the snooper 236 holds the requested memory block in any ofthe T, Tn, Te or Ten states (generically designated as Tx in FIG. 15)and no Sr′ snooper 236 affirms the local bus RWITM operation (block1512), the process passes to block 1514. Block 1514 represents the Txsnooper 236 that affirmed the local bus RWITM operation initiatingtransmission of the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache230 in response to receipt of the CR from response logic 210. Inresponse to receipt of the requested memory block, the requesting L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the M state. All validaffirming snoopers 236 (i.e., not Ig snoopers 236) update theirrespective cache states for the requested memory block to I.

If the complex of partial responses includes a Tx snooper 236 and an Sr′snooper 236 both affirming the local bus RWITM operation (blocks 1510and 1512), the process passes to block 1516. Block 1516 represents theSr′ snooper 236 that affirmed the local bus RWITM operation initiatingtransmission of the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache230 prior to receipt of the CR provided by response logic 210. Inresponse to receipt of the requested memory block, the requesting L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the M state. All affirmingsnoopers 236 (i.e., not Ig snoopers 236) update their respective cachestates for the requested memory block to I.

As shown at block 1517, in either of the cases represented by blocks1514 and 1516, response logic 210 generates a CR dependent upon whetherthe Tx affirming snooper 236 held the requested memory block in one ofthe T/Te states or the Tn/Ten states. If the Tx snooper 236 was T or Te,response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “cleanup”, as shown atblock 1518. If, however, the Tx snooper 236 was Tn or Ten, responselogic 210 advantageously restricts the scope of the cleanup operationsto the local domain by generating a CR indicating “local cleanup”, asshown at block 1556. The limited scope of cleanup operations ispermitted because the existence of a Tn or Ten coherency stateguarantees that no remote cache holds the requested memory block,meaning that coherency can be maintained without a wider broadcast ofthe local bus RWITM operation or attendant bus kill operations.

The local bus RWITM operation cannot be serviced by a L2 cache snooper236 without retry if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 (i.e., HPC) affirms thelocal bus RWITM operation to signify that it can mediate the datatransfer. Accordingly, if an Sr′ snooper 236 affirms the local bus RWITMoperation and supplies early data to the requesting L2 cache 230 asshown at block 1520, the master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230discards the data provided by the Sr′ snooper 236, as depicted at block1522.

Block 1524 represents the differences in handling the local bus RWITMoperation depending upon whether a snooper 236 of an L2 cache 230provides a partial response affirming the local bus RWITM operation andindicating that the L2 cache 230 holds the address tag of the requestedmemory block in the Ig state. If so, any valid affirming snooper 236(i.e., not Ig snoopers 236) invalidates the relevant cache entry (block1532). If no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 is possibly hidden by anincomplete partial response (block 1534), distributed response logic 210provides a “go global” CR, as depicted at block 1536. If, on the otherhand, an Ig snooper 236 affirms the local bus RWITM operation and thecomplex of partial responses indicates an M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 ispossibly hidden, response logic 210 generates a “retry” CR, as depictedat block 1538. Thus, the affirmance of the local bus RWITM operation byan Ig snooper 236 will cause the operation to be reissued as a globaloperation if no HPC is possibly hidden in the local coherency domain.

If an Ig snooper 236 does not affirm the local bus RWITM operation atblock 1524, the local bus RWITM operation is handled in accordance withblock 1530 and following blocks. In particular, if no memory controllersnooper 222 provides a partial response indicating that it isresponsible (i.e., the LPC) for the requested memory block (block 1530),each valid affirming snooper 236 invalidates the requested memory blockin its respective L2 cache directory 302 (block 1532). The CR generatedby response logic 210 depends upon whether any partial responsesindicate that an M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 may be hidden (block 1534).That is, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 may be hidden, response logic210 generates a “go global” CR at block 1536 to inform the master 232that the local bus RWITM operation must be reissued as a global RWITMoperation. On the other hand, if an M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 (i.e., anHPC) for the requested memory block may be hidden, response logic 210generates a CR indicating “retry”, as depicted at block 1538, becausethe operation may be serviced locally if retried.

Similarly, valid affirming snoopers 236 invalidate their respectivecopies of the requested memory block (block 1542), and response logic210 provides a “retry” CR for the local bus RWITM operation (block 1538)if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms the local bus RWITM operation anda snooper 222 provides a partial response indicating that it is the LPCbut does not affirm the local bus RWITM operation. A “retry” CR is alsogenerated at block 1538, and snoopers 236 invalidate their respectivecopies of the requested memory block (block 1542) if no M, Me, or Txsnooper 236 affirmed the local bus RWTIM operation (blocks 1502, 1510),a snooper 222 affirmed the local bus RWITM operation (block 1540), andan M, Me, Tx or Ig snooper 236 may be possibly hidden (block 1544).

As shown at block 1546, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms the localbus RWITM operation or is possibly hidden and the LPC snooper 222affirms the local bus RWITM operation, each valid affirming snooper 236(i.e., not Ig snoopers 236) invalidates its respective copy of therequested memory block. In addition, the LPC snooper 222 provides therequested memory block and associated domain indicator 504 to therequesting L2 cache 230 in response to receipt of the CR from responselogic 210. The master 232 of the requesting L2 cache 230 handles thedata in accordance with the domain indicator 504. In particular, if thedomain indicator 504 is reset to “global”, meaning that a remote cachedcopy may exist that renders stale the data received from the LPC snooper222, master 232 discards the data received from the LPC snooper 222,maintains an invalid coherency state with respect to the requestedmemory block (block 1552), and interprets the CR provided by responselogic 210 as “go global” (block 1536). If, on the other hand, the domainindicator 504 is set to “local”, meaning that no remote cached copy ofthe requested memory block renders the data received from the LPCsnooper 222 potentially stale, the master 232 places the requestedmemory block and domain indicator 504 in its L2 cache array 300 and setsthe associated state field 306 to M (block 1546). If the partialresponses and hence the CR indicate an S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possiblyhidden (block 1554), the CR indicates local “cleanup” (block 1556),meaning that the requesting L2 cache 230 must invalidate the other validlocally cached copies of the requested memory block, if any, through oneor more local bus kill operations. If no such S′ or Sr′ snoopers 236 arepossibly hidden by incomplete partial responses, the CR indicates“success”, as depicted at block 1506.

It will be further appreciated that in some embodiments, the master ofthe local bus RWITM operation may speculatively perform a local cleanupas shown at block 1556 prior to receipt of the domain indicator 3004from the LPC (block 1550). In this manner, the latency associated withdata delivery from the LPC can be masked by the one or more local buskill operations involved in the local cleanup operations.

With reference now to FIGS. 16A-16B, there is illustrated a high levellogical flowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global busRWITM operation in a data processing system in accordance with thepresent invention. As shown, the process begins at block 1600 inresponse to the master 232 of a requesting L2 cache 230 issuing a globalbus RWITM operation, for example, at block 754 of FIG. 7A. If a snooper236 affirms the global bus RWITM operation with a partial responseindicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236 holds therequested memory block in the M or Me state as shown at block 1602, theM or Me snooper 236 provides early data to the requesting master 232,which holds the requested memory block in the M state (block 1604 orblock 1606). Response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “success”, asshown at block 1607. In addition, the M or Me snooper 236 updates itscache state to either I or Ig depending upon whether or not it is localto (i.e., in the same coherency domain as) the requesting master 232(block 1603). If the M or Me snooper 236 determines it belongs to thesame coherency domain as the requesting master 232, for example, byreference to the scope indicator in the bus operation, the M or Mesnooper 236 updates its cache state for the requested memory block to I(block 1606). On the other hand, if the M or Me snooper 236 determinesit does not belong to the same coherency domain as the requesting master232, the M or Me snooper 236 updates its cache state for the requestedmemory block to Ig in order to maintain a cached domain indicator forthe requested memory block in its coherency domain (block 1604).Consequently, no retry-push is required in response to the global busRWITM operation in order to update the domain indicator 504 in the LPCsystem memory 108.

Turning now to block 1610, if a snooper 236 affirms the global bus RWITMoperation with a partial response indicating that the L2 cache 230containing the snooper 236 holds the requested memory block in eitherthe Tn or Ten state, the process passes to block 1612, which representsthe Tn or Ten snooper 236 determining whether or not it is local to therequesting master 232. If so, the global bus RWITM operation is handledin accordance with blocks 1614 and following blocks, which are describedbelow. If, however, the Tn or Ten snooper 236 affirming the global busRWITM operation determines that it is not local to the requesting master232, the global bus RWITM operation is serviced in accordance witheither block 1618 or block 1620, depending upon whether or not an Sr′snooper 236 also affirmed the global bus RWITM operation.

As shown at blocks 1618, if an Sr′ snooper 236 affirmed the global busRWITM operation, the Sr′ snooper 236 provides early data to therequesting master 232, and the Tn or Ten snooper 236 that affirmed theglobal bus RWITM operation updates its cache state for the entrycontaining the requested memory block to Ig. In response to receipt ofthe requested memory block, the requesting L2 cache 230 holds therequested memory block in the M state. In addition, any valid affirmingsnooper 236 (i.e., not an Ig snooper 236) other than the Tn or Tensnooper 236 updates its respective cache state for the requested memoryblock to I. Alternatively, as depicted at block 1620, if an Sr′ snooper236 does not affirm the global bus RWITM operation, the Tn or Tensnooper 236 provides late data in response to receipt of the CR. Inresponse to receipt of the requested memory block, the requesting L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the M state. In addition,the Tn or Ten snooper 236 updates its cache state to Ig, and any othervalid affirming snooper 236 (i.e., not an Ig snooper 236) updates itsrespective cache state for the requested memory block to I. Thus, if aremote Tn or Ten snooper 236 affirms the global bus RWITM operation, theaffirming Tn or Ten snooper 236 enters the Ig state in order to maintaina cached domain indicator for the requested memory block in itscoherency domain. Consequently, no retry-push is required in response tothe global bus RWITM operation in order to update the domain indicator504 in the LPC system memory 108.

In either of the cases represented by blocks 1618 and 1620, responselogic 210 generates a CR dependent upon whether an S′ or Sr′ snooper 236is possibly hidden and thus unable to invalidate its copy of therequested memory block in response to snooping the global bus RWITMoperation. If response logic 210 makes a determination at block 1626based upon the partial responses to the global bus RWITM operation thatan S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden, response logic 210generates a CR indicating “cleanup”, as shown at block 1628.Alternatively, if response logic 210 determines that no S′ or Sr′snooper 236 is possibly hidden, response logic 210 generates a CRindicating “success”, as depicted at block 1607.

Returning to block 1612, if a Tn or Ten snooper 236 that is local to therequesting master 232 affirms the global bus RWITM operation, the globalbus RWITM operation is serviced in accordance with either block 1624 orblock 1622, depending upon whether or not an Sr′ snooper 236 alsoaffirmed the global bus RWITM operation.

As shown at block 1624, if an Sr′ snooper 236 affirmed the global busRWITM operation, the Sr′ snooper 236 provides early data to therequesting master 232, and each valid snooper 236 that affirmed theglobal bus RWITM operation updates its respective cache state for theentry containing the requested memory block to I. In response to receiptof the requested memory block, the requesting L2 cache 230 holds therequested memory block in the M state. Alternatively, as depicted atblock 1622, if an Sr′ snooper 236 does not affirm the global bus RWITMoperation, the Tn or Ten snooper 236 provides late data in response toreceipt of the CR. In response to receipt of the requested memory block,the requesting L2 cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the Mstate. In addition, each valid affirming snooper 236 (i.e., not an Igsnooper 236) updates its respective cache state for the requested memoryblock to I.

In either of the cases represented by blocks 1624 and 1622, responselogic 210 generates a CR dependent upon whether an S′ or Sr′ snooper 236is possibly hidden and thus unable to invalidate its copy of therequested memory block in response to snooping the global bus RWITMoperation. If response logic 210 makes a determination at block 1625based upon the partial responses to the global bus RWITM operation thatan S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden, response logic 210generates a CR indicating “local cleanup”, as shown at block 1632. Thus,the scope of the bus kill operations required to ensure coherency areadvantageously limited to the local coherency domain containing therequesting L2 cache 230 and the (former) Tn or Ten snooper 236.Alternatively, if response logic 210 determines that no S′ or Sr′snooper 236 is possibly hidden, response logic 210 generates a CRindicating “success”, as depicted at block 1607.

Following page connector 0 to block 1630 of FIG. 16B, if a T or Tesnooper 236 affirms the global bus RWITM operation, the process passesto block 1632, which represents the T or Te snooper 236 determiningwhether or not it is local to the requesting master 232. If so, theglobal bus RWITM operation is handled in accordance with blocks 1638 andfollowing blocks, which are described in detail below. If, however, theT or Te snooper 236 affirming the global bus RWITM operation determinesthat it is not local to the requesting master 232, the global bus RWITMoperation is serviced in accordance with either block 1636 or block1635, depending upon whether or not an Sr′ snooper 236 affirmed theglobal bus RWITM operation.

As shown at blocks 1635, if an Sr′ snooper 236 affirmed the global busRWITM operation, the Sr′ snooper 236 provides early data to therequesting master 232, and the T or Te snooper 236 that affirmed theglobal bus RWITM operation updates its cache state for the entrycontaining the requested memory block to Ig. In response to receipt ofthe requested memory block, the requesting L2 cache 230 holds therequested memory block in the M state. In addition, any valid affirmingsnooper 236 other than the T or Te snooper 236 updates its respectivecache state for the requested memory block to I. Alternatively, asdepicted at block 1636, if an Sr′ snooper 236 does not affirm the globalbus RWITM operation, the T or Te snooper 236 provides late data inresponse to receipt of a CR. In response to receipt of the requestedmemory block, the requesting L2 cache 230 holds the requested memoryblock in the M state. In addition, the T or Te snooper 236 updates itscache state to Ig, and any other valid affirming snooper 236 updates itsrespective cache state for the requested memory block to I. Thus, if aremote T or Te snooper 236 affirms the global bus RWITM operation, theaffirming T or Te snooper 236 enters the Ig state in order to maintain acached domain indicator for the requested memory block in its coherencydomain. Consequently, no retry-push is required in response to theglobal bus RWITM operation in order to update the domain indicator 504in the LPC system memory 108.

In either of the cases represented by block 1635 or block 1636, responselogic 210 generates a CR dependent upon whether an S′ or Sr′ snooper 236is possibly hidden and thus unable to invalidate its copy of therequested memory block in response to snooping the global bus RWITMoperation. If response logic 210 makes a determination at block 1644based upon the partial responses to the bus RWITM operation that an S′or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden, response logic 210 generates a CRindicating “cleanup”, as shown at block 1626. Alternatively, if responselogic 210 determines that no S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden,response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “success”, as depicted atblock 1607.

Returning to blocks 1632 and 1638, if the T or Te snooper 236 determinesat block 3412 that it is local the requesting master 232, the global busRWITM operation is serviced in accordance with either block 1640 orblock 1642, depending upon whether an Sr′ snooper 236 also affirmed theglobal bus RWITM operation. That is, as shown at block 1640, if no Sr′snooper 236 affirms the global bus RWITM operation (block 1638), the Tor Te snooper 236 that affirmed the global bus RWITM operation initiatestransmission of the requested memory block to the requesting L2 cache230 in response to receipt of the CR (i.e., provides “late” data). Inresponse to receipt of the requested memory block, the requesting L2cache 230 holds the requested memory block in the M state. In addition,all valid affirming snoopers 236 update their respective cache statesfor the requested memory block to I. Alternatively, as depicted at block1642, if an Sr′ snooper 236 affirms the global bus RWITM operation(block 1638), the Sr′ snooper 236 initiates transmission of therequested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230 prior to receiptof the CR (i.e., provides “early” data). In response to receipt of therequested memory block, the requesting L2 cache 230 holds the requestedmemory block in the M state. In addition, all valid affirming snoopers236 update their respective cache states for the requested memory blockto I. Following either block 1640 or block 1642, the process passes toblock 1644, which has been described.

Referring now to block 1650, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms theglobal bus RWITM operation, and further, if no snooper 222 provides apartial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) forthe requested memory block, an error occurs causing processing to halt,as depicted at block 1652. If, on the other hand, no M, Me, or Txsnooper 236 affirms the bus RWITM operation and a snooper 222 provides apartial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) forthe requested memory block but does not affirm the bus RWITM operation(block 1660), each valid affirming snooper 236 (i.e., not an Ig snooper236) invalidates the requested memory block in its respective L2 cachedirectory 302 (block 1672), and response logic 210 generates a CRindicating “retry”, as depicted at block 1674. In addition, dataprovided by an Sr′ snooper 236 affirming the global bus RWITM operation,if any, is discarded by the master 232 (blocks 1668 and 1670). Asindicated by decision block 1662, affirming snoopers 236 similarlyinvalidate their respective copies of the requested memory block atblock 1672 and response logic 210 generates a “retry” CR at block 1674if a memory controller snooper 222 affirms the global bus RWITMoperation (block 1660) and an L2 cache snooper 236 provides a partialresponse indicating that it may hold the requested memory block in oneof the M, Me, or Tx states but cannot affirm the global bus RWITMoperation (block 1662).

With reference now to block 1664, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirmsthe global bus RWITM operation or is possibly hidden, a snooper 222affirms the global bus RWITM operation, and a Sr′ snooper 236 affirmsthe global bus RWITM operation, the global bus RWITM operation isserviced in accordance with block 1642 and following blocks, which aredescribed above. Assuming these same conditions except for the absenceof an Sr′ snooper 236 affirming the global bus RWITM operation, theglobal bus RWITM operation is serviced in accordance with block 1666. Inparticular, in response to the CR, the LPC snooper 222 provides therequested memory block to the requesting L2 cache 230, which obtains therequested memory block in the M state, and all valid affirming snoopers236 invalidate their respective copies of the requested memory block, ifany.

Following block 1666, the process passes to blocks 1680-1686, whichcollectively represent the LPC snooper 222 determining whether or not toupdate the domain indicator 504 for the requested memory block basedupon whether the LPC snooper 222 is local to the requesting master 232(block 1680) and the present state of the domain indicator (blocks 1682and 1684). If the LPC snooper 222 is local to the requesting L2 cache230 and the domain indicator 504 in system memory 108 is set to indicate“local”, no update is required, and the process passes through pageconnector P to block 1625 of FIG. 16A, which has been described. On theother hand, LPC snooper 222 changes the state of the domain indicator504 at block 1686 if LPC snooper 222 is local to the requesting master232 and domain indicator 504 is reset to indicate “global” or if LPCsnooper 222 is not local to the requesting master 232 and domainindicator 504 is reset to indicate “local”.

If the partial responses indicate an S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possiblyhidden (block 1644), the requesting L2 cache 230 receives a “cleanup” CRat block 1628, indicating that it must invalidate any other valid cachedcopies of the requested memory block. If no S′ or Sr′ snoopers 236 arepossibly hidden by incomplete partial responses, response logic 210generates a “success” CR, as depicted at block 1607.

With reference now to FIG. 17, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus DClaimoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. As shown, the process begins at block 1700, for example, witha master 232 issuing a local bus DClaim operation on a localinterconnect 114 at block 732 of FIG. 7A. The various partial responsesthat snoopers 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 inresponse to the local bus DClaim operation are represented in FIG. 17 bythe outcomes of decision blocks 1702, 1710, 1720, 1740, and 1744. Thesepartial responses in turn determine what CR response logic 210 generatesfor the local bus DClaim operation.

As shown at block 1702, if any snooper 236 issues a partial responsedowngrading the local bus DClaim operation to a bus RWITM operation asillustrated, for example, at blocks 748 and 754 of FIG. 7A, each otheraffirming snooper 236 holding the requested memory block in a validstate invalidates its respective copy of the requested memory block, asshown at block 1703. In response to the local bus DClaim operation andthe partial responses, distributed response logic 210 generates a CRindicating “downgrade”, as shown at block 1704. In response to this CR,the master 232 of the local bus DClaim operation must next attempt togain ownership of the requested memory block utilizing a local bus RWITMoperation, as depicted at block 748 of FIG. 7A.

If a snooper 236 affirms the local bus DClaim operation with a partialresponse indicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236holds the requested memory block in either the T or Te state as shown atblock 1710, the process passes to block 1712. Because no data transferis required in response to a bus DClaim operation, block 1712 indicatesthat the master 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 updates the cachestate of the requested memory block in L2 cache directory 302 to the Mstate. All valid affirming snoopers 236 update their respective cachestates for the requested memory block to I. As shown at block 1718,distributed response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “cleanup”,meaning that the requesting L2 cache 230 must issue one or more bus killoperations to invalidate copies of the requested memory block, if any,held outside of the local coherency domain.

As illustrated at block 1740, if a Tn or Ten snooper 236 affirms thelocal bus DClaim operation, the process passes to block 1742. Because nodata transfer is required in response to a bus DClaim operation, block1742 indicates that the master 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230updates the cache state of the requested memory block in L2 cachedirectory 302 to the M state. All valid affirming snoopers 236 updatetheir respective cache states for the requested memory block to I. Asshown at block 1744, distributed response logic 210 generates a CR thatis dependent upon whether the partial responses received by responselogic 210 indicate that an Sr′ or S′ snooper 236 may be possibly hidden.If not, distributed response logic 210 generates a response indicating“success”, as shown at block 1746, because the presence of the Tn or Tencoherency state guarantees that no L2 cache 230 outside of the localcoherency domain holds a copy of the requested memory block. If thepartial responses indicate that an Sr′ or S′ snooper 236 may be possiblyhidden, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “local cleanup”, asshown at block 1748. Only local cleanup operations are required becausethe Tn or Ten coherency state again guarantees that no L2 cache 230outside of the local coherency domain holds a valid copy of therequested memory block.

Turning now to block 1720, if no snooper downgrades the local bus DClaimoperation (block 1702), no Tx snooper 236 affirms the local bus DClaimoperation (blocks 1710 and 1740), and further, and a snooper 236provides a partial response indicating that it may hold the requestedmemory block in a Tx state but cannot affirm the local bus DClaimoperation, each valid affirming snoopers 236 updates its respectivecoherency state for the requested memory block to the I state (block1721). In addition, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating“retry”, as depicted at block 1722. In response to the “retry” CR, therequesting master 232 may reissue the bus DClaim operation as either alocal or global operation, as explained above with reference to block736 of FIG. 7A. If, however, no snooper downgrades the local bus DClaimoperation (block 1702), no Tx snooper 236 affirms the bus DClaimoperation or is possibly hidden (blocks 1702, 1710, 1740, and 1720),response logic 210 provides a “go global” CR, as shown at block 1732,and all affirming snoopers, if any, having a valid copy of the requestedmemory block invalidate their respective copies of the requested memoryblock, as shown at block 1730. In response to the “go global” CR, themaster 232 reissues the bus DClaim operation as a global operation, asdepicted at block 740 of FIG. 7A.

Referring now to FIG. 18, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus DClaimoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 1800, for example, with a master232 of an L2 cache 230 issuing a global bus DClaim operation on systeminterconnect 110 at block 740 of FIG. 7A. The various partial responsesthat snoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 inresponse to the global bus DClaim operation are represented in FIG. 18by the outcomes of decision blocks 1802, 1810, 1818, 1830, 1840, 1842and 1819 These partial responses in turn determine what CR responselogic 210 generates for the global bus DClaim operation.

As shown at block 1802, if any snooper 236 issues a partial responsedowngrading the global bus DClaim operation to a bus RWITM operation,each valid affirming snooper 236 (i.e., not an Ig snooper 236) otherthan the downgrading snooper 236 invalidates its copy of the requestedmemory block, as shown at block 1803. In addition, distributed responselogic 210 generates a CR indicating “downgrade”, as shown at block 1804.In response to this CR, the master 232 of the global bus DClaimoperation must next attempt to gain ownership of the requested memoryblock utilizing a bus RWITM operation, as depicted at blocks 748 and 754of FIG. 7A.

If a Tx (e.g., T, Te, Tn, or Ten) snooper 236 affirms the global busDClaim operation as shown at block 1810, the process passes to block1812. Block 1812 depicts the Tx snooper 236 determining whether it islocal to the requesting master 232. If not, the Tx snooper 236 updatesthe state of its relevant entry to Ig to maintain a cached domainindicator for the requested memory block as shown at block 1814. Inaddition, the requesting master 232 updates the coherency state of itscopy of the requested memory block to M, and each valid affirmingsnooper 236 other than the Tx snooper 236 updates its coherency statefor the requested memory block to I (block 1814).

Returning to block 1812, if the Tx snooper 236 determines that it islocal to the requesting master 232, the global bus DClaim operation ishandled in accordance with block 1816. In particular, the master 232 inthe requesting L2 cache 230 updates the state of its copy of therequested memory block to the M state, and all valid affirming snoopers236 update their respective cache states for the requested memory blockto I.

As shown at blocks 1818 and 1822, if the partial responses indicate thatno S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden, the process ends withdistributed response logic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”(block 1822). If, on the other hand, a determination is made at block1818 that at least one partial response indicating the presence of apossibly hidden S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 was given in response to theglobal bus DClaim operation, some type of cleanup operation will berequired. If the affirming Tx snooper 236 is within the same coherencydomain as the requesting master 232 and, prior to the operation, was inone of the Te and Ten states, distributed response logic 210 generates aCR indicating “local cleanup” (block 1824), meaning that the requestingL2 cache 230 must issue one or more local bus kill operations toinvalidate the requested memory block in any such hidden S′ or Sr′snooper 236. If the affirming Tx snooper 236 is not within the samecoherency domain as the requesting master 232 or the affirming Txsnooper 236 was, prior to the operation, in one of the T or Te coherencystates, global cleanup is required, and response logic 210 generates aCR indicating “cleanup” (block 1820). Thus, the presence of a Tn or Tencoherency state can again be utilized to limit the scope of bus killoperations.

Turning now to block 1830, if no Tx snooper 236 affirms the global busDClaim operation, and further, if no snooper 222 provides a partialresponse indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for therequested memory block, an error occurs causing processing to halt, asdepicted at block 1832. If, on the other hand, no Tx snooper 236 affirmsthe global bus DClaim operation and a snooper 222 provides a partialresponse indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for therequested memory block but does not affirm the global bus DClaimoperation (block 1840), each valid affirming snooper 236 invalidates itsrespective copy of the requested memory block (block 1843), and responselogic 210 generates a CR indicating “retry”, as depicted at block 1844.As indicated by decision block 1842, each valid affirming snooper alsoinvalidates its respective copy of the requested memory block at block1843, and response logic 210 similarly generates a “retry” CR at block1844 if a memory controller snooper 222 affirms the bus DClaim operation(block 1840) and an Tx snooper 236 may be possibly hidden (block 1842).

As depicted at block 1842, if no Tx snooper 236 affirms the global busDClaim operation or is possibly hidden and a snooper 222 affirms theglobal bus DClaim operation, the global bus DClaim operation is servicedin accordance with block 1816, which is described above.

With reference now to FIG. 19, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus killoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The limitation of scope of the local bus kill operation toone coherency domain is enabled by the additional information providedby the Tn and Ten coherency states, namely, that no shared copy of thememory block resides outside of the coherency domain.

As depicted, the process begins at block 1900, for example, with themaster 232 of an L2 cache 230 issuing a local bus kill operation on itslocal interconnect 114, for example, at block 788 of FIG. 7B, block 878of FIG. 8B or block 1044 of FIG. 10. The various partial responses thatsnoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 inresponse to the local bus kill operation are represented in FIG. 19 bythe outcomes of decision blocks 1902 and 1906. These partial responsesin turn determine what CR response logic 210 generates for the local buskill operation.

In particular, as depicted at blocks 1902 and 1904, any snooper 236affirming the bus kill operation in any of the M, Me, Tx, Sr′ or S′states invalidates its copy of the requested memory block without anytransmission of data in response to receipt of the CR. An affirming Igsnooper 236, if any, remains in the Ig state. As further shown at blocks1906, 1908 and 1910, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “localcleanup” if any snooper 236 provides a partial response not affirmingthe local bus kill operation and otherwise generates a CR indicating“success”.

With reference now to FIG. 20, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus killoperation in accordance with the present invention. As depicted, theprocess begins at block 2000, for example, with the master 232 of an L2cache 230 issuing a bus kill operation on system interconnect 110, forexample, at block 626 of FIG. 6, block 726 of FIG. 7 or block 912 ofFIG. 9. The various partial responses that snoopers 222, 236 may provideto distributed response logic 210 in response to the global bus killoperation are represented in FIG. 20 by the outcomes of decision blocks2002 and 2006. These partial responses in turn determine what CRresponse logic 210 generates for the bus kill operation.

In particular, as depicted at blocks 2002 and 2004, any valid snooper236 affirming the bus kill operation in any of the M, Me, Tx, Sr′ or S′states invalidates its copy of the requested memory block without anytransmission of data in response to receipt of the CR. An affirming Igsnooper 236, if any, remains in the Ig state. As further shown at blocks2006, 2008 and 2010, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating“cleanup” if any snooper 236 provided a partial response not affirmingthe bus kill operation and otherwise generates a CR indicating“success”.

With reference now to FIG. 21, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus DCBZoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 2100, for example, with theissuance of a local bus DCBZ operation on a local interconnect 114 atblock 2052 of FIG. 56A. The various partial responses that snoopers 236may provide to distributed response logic 210 are represented in FIG. 21by the outcomes of decision blocks 2102, 2103, 2107, 2110, and 2120.These partial responses in turn determine the CR for the local bus DCBZoperation.

If a snooper 236 affirms the local bus DCBZ operation with a partialresponse indicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236holds the requested memory block in either the M or Me state as shown atblock 2102, the process proceeds to block 2104. Block 2104 indicates theoperations of the requesting L2 cache 230 and affirming L2 cache 230 inresponse to the request. In particular, the master 232 in the requestingL2 cache 230 updates the cache state of the requested memory block tothe M state (no data is transferred), and the snooper 236 in theaffirming L2 cache 230 updates the cache state of the requested memoryblock to the I state. The process then ends with distributed responselogic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”, as depicted at block2106.

As depicted at blocks 2103 and 2105, if a Tn or Ten snooper 236 affirmsthe local bus DCBZ operation, the Tn or Ten snooper 236 and any othervalid affirming snooper 236 invalidates its copy of the requested memoryblock, and the requesting L2 cache 230 updates its cache state for therequested memory block to the M state. If response logic 210 received apartial response indicating that an Sr′ or S′ snooper 236 is possiblyhidden (block 2107), response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “localcleanup”, as illustrated at block 2109. Thus, the existence of the Tn orTen state enables the scope of cleanup operations to be restricted tothe local coherency domain. If response logic 210 determines at block2107 that no Sr′ or S′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden, response logic210 generates a CR indicating “success”, as shown at block 2106.

Referring now to block 2110, if a T or Te snooper 236 affirms the localbus DCBZ operation, the process passes to block 2112. Block 2112represents the T or Te snooper 236 and any other valid affirming snooper236 invalidating its respective copy of the requested memory block andthe master 232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 updating the cache stateof the requested memory block to the M state. As further illustrated atblock 2116, distributed response logic 210 generates a CR indicating“cleanup” in order to ensure the invalidation of copies of the requestedmemory block, if any, held in L2 caches 230 outside of the localcoherency domain.

Turning now to block 2120, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms thelocal bus DCBZ operation (blocks 2102 and 2110), and further, a snooper236 provides a partial response indicating that it may hold therequested memory block in the M, Me, or Tx state but cannot affirm thelocal bus DCBZ operation, each valid affirming snooper 236 invalidatesits respective copy of the requested memory block (block 2121), andresponse logic 210 generates a CR indicating “retry”, as depicted atblock 2122. In response to the “retry” CR, the requesting master 232 mayreissue the bus DCBZ operation as either a local or global operation, asexplained above with reference to block 2050 of FIG. 20. If, however, noM, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms the bus DClaim operation or is possiblyhidden (blocks 2102, 2110, 2120), response logic 210 provides a “goglobal” CR, as shown at block 2132, and all affirming snoopers, if any,having a valid copy of the requested memory block invalidate theirrespective copies of the requested memory block, as shown at block 2130.In response to the “go global” CR, the master 232 reissues the bus DCBZoperation as a global operation, as depicted at block 860 of FIG. 8A.

Referring now to FIG. 22, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus DCBZoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 2200, for example, with themaster 232 of an L2 cache 230 issuing a global bus DCBZ operation onsystem interconnect 110 at block 860 of FIG. 8A. The various partialresponses that snoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed responselogic 210 are represented in FIG. 22 by the outcomes of decision blocks2202, 2210, 2212, 2230, 2238, 2239 and 2250. These partial responses inturn determine the CR for the global bus DCBZ operation.

As indicated at blocks 2202-2204, if no snooper 222 provides a partialresponse indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for therequested memory block, an error halting processing occurs, since the noLPC was found. If a snooper 222 indicates that it is the LPC for therequested memory block, but does not affirm the global DCBZ operation,each affirming snooper 236 invalidates its respective copy of therequested memory block (block 2251), and response logic 210 generates aCR indicating “retry”, as depicted at block 2252. A “retry” CR issimilarly generated by response logic 210 at block 2252 and each validaffirming snooper 236 invalidates its respective copy of the requestedmemory block at block 2251 if a snooper 222 affirms the global bus DCBZoperation, no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms the global bus DCBZoperation, and an M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 is possibly hidden.

If a snooper 236 affirms the global bus DCBZ operation with a partialresponse indicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236holds the requested memory block in either the M or Me state as shown atblock 2212, the process proceeds to block 2214. Block 2214 indicates theoperations of the requesting L2 cache 230 and the affirming L2 cache 230in response to the global bus DCBZ operation. In particular, the master232 in the requesting L2 cache 230 updates the cache state of therequested memory block to the M state (no data is transferred), and thesnooper 236 in the affirming L2 cache 230 updates the cache state of therequested memory block to the I state. As further shown at block 2216and 2218, the LPC snooper 222 also resets the domain indicator 504associated with the requested memory block to “global” if the LPCsnooper 222 is not within the same coherency domain as the requestingmaster 232. The process ends with distributed response logic 210generating a CR indicating “success”, as depicted at block 2220.

If a Tx snooper 236 affirms the global bus DCBZ operation as shown atblock 2230, the process passes to block 2232. Block 2232 represents theTx snooper 236 and any other valid affirming snooper 236 invalidatingits copy of the requested memory block and the master 232 in therequesting L2 cache 230 updating the cache state of its copy of therequested memory block to the M state. As further shown at block 2234and 2236, the LPC snooper 222 also resets the domain indicator 504associated with the requested memory block to “global” if the LPCsnooper 222 is not within the same coherency domain as the requestingmaster 232.

If response logic 210 determines at block 2238 that the partialresponses indicate that no S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 is possibly hidden,distributed response logic 210 provides a CR indicating “success” asshown at block 2220. If, on the other hand, at least one partialresponse indicating the presence of a possibly hidden S′ or Sr′ snooper236 was given in response to the global bus DCBZ operation, cleanupoperations are required. Accordingly, as shown at blocks 2239, 2242 and2240, distributed response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “localcleanup” if the LPC snooper 222 is local to the requesting master 232and the affirming snooper 236 held the requested memory block in one ofthe Tn or Ten coherency states, and otherwise generates a CR indicatingglobal “cleanup”.

As indicated by decision block 2250, if a memory controller snooper 222affirms the global bus DCBZ operation (block 2210) and no M, Me, or Txsnooper 236 affirms the global bus DCBZ operation or is possibly hidden(blocks 2212, 2230 and 2250), the global bus DCBZ operation is servicedas described above with reference to block 2232 and following blocks.

With reference now to FIG. 23, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus castoutoperation in a data processing system in accordance with preferredembodiments of the present invention. The process begins at block 2300,for example, with the issuance of a local bus castout operation on alocal interconnect 114 at block 1206 or block 1212 of FIG. 12. Thevarious partial responses that snoopers 222, 236 may provide todistributed response logic 210 are represented in FIG. 23 by theoutcomes of decision blocks 2302 and 2310. These partial responses inturn determine the CR for the local bus castout operation.

If a snooper 236 affirms the local bus castout operation with a partialresponse indicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236holds the requested memory block in any of the M, Me, or Tx states asshown at block 2302, an error halting processing occurs, as indicated atblock 2304, because the memory block being castout can have only one HPC(i.e., the requesting L2 cache 230).

As depicted at block 2310, if no M, Me or Tx snooper 236 affirms thelocal bus castout operation (block 2302), and further, if no snooper 222provides a partial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., theLPC) for the requested memory block, response logic 210 provides a “goglobal” CR, as depicted at block 2312, because the LPC is a requiredparticipant to receive the castout memory block. If, however, no M, Me,or Tx snooper 236 affirms the bus castout operation (block 2302) and asnooper 222 provides a partial response indicating that it isresponsible (i.e., the LPC) for the requested memory block but does notaffirm the bus castout operation (blocks 2310 and 2320), response logic210 generates a CR indicating “local retry”, as depicted at block 2330,because the LPC is in the local coherency domain but must be availableto receive the castout memory block. If a memory controller snooper 222affirms the bus castout operation (block 2320) and no M, Me, or Txsnooper 236 affirms the bus castout operation (block 2302), therequesting L2 cache 230 invalidates the memory block within its cachedirectory 302 and transmits the memory block to the LPC (block 2324 orblock 2328), unless the requesting L2 cache 230 is in the Ig state. Inaddition to updating the memory block, the LPC snooper 222 sets theassociated domain indicator 504 to “local” if the memory block is in theM, Me, Tn or Ten state (blocks 2322 and 2324), and resets the associateddomain indicator 504 to “global” if the memory block is in the T or Testate (blocks 2322 and 2328). The update of the domain indicator 504 tolocal is possible because a castout of a memory block in either of theM, Me, Tn or Ten states guarantees that no remotely cached copy of thememory block exists. In response to an affirmative determination atblock 2320, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “success”, asillustrated at block 2326.

Referring now to FIG. 24, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus castoutoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. The process begins at block 2400, for example, with a master232 of an L2 cache 230 issuing a global bus castout operation on systeminterconnect 110 at block 1220 of FIG. 12. The various partial responsesthat snoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 arerepresented in FIG. 24 by the outcomes of decision blocks 2402, 2410,2420, 2423 and 2427. These partial responses in turn determine the CRfor the global bus castout operation.

If a snooper 236 affirms the global bus castout operation with a partialresponse indicating that the L2 cache 230 containing the snooper 236holds the requested memory block in any of the M, Me, or Tx states asshown at block 2402, an error halting processing occurs, as indicated atblock 2404, because the memory block being castout can have only one HPC(i.e., the requesting L2 cache 230).

As depicted at block 2402 and 2410, if no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236affirms the global bus castout operation, and further, if no snooper 222provides a partial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., theLPC) for the requested memory block, an error occurs causing processingto halt, as depicted at block 2412. If, however, no M, Me, or Tx snooper236 affirms the bus castout operation and a snooper 222 provides apartial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) forthe requested memory block but does not affirm the global bus castoutoperation (block 2420), response logic 210 generates a CR indicating“retry”, as depicted at block 2430, because the LPC must be available toreceive the castout memory block.

If a memory controller snooper 222 affirms the bus castout operation(block 2420) and no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms the global buscastout operation (block 2402), the castout operation will besuccessful, as indicated by the CR generated by response logic 210(block 2426), and the global bus castout operation will be handled inaccordance with the coherency state of the victim memory block selectedfor replacement (block 2422). If the victim memory block is in the Mstate, as represented by the process passing to block 2423, therequesting L2 cache 230 performs a self-snoop of the global bus castoutoperation against its reservation registers 314 to determine if it holdsa reservation for the address of the castout memory block and, if so,provides a partial response to response logic 210 indicating so.Regardless of whether the requesting L2 cache 230 holds a reservationfor the victim memory block, the requesting L2 cache 230 invalidates thevictim memory block within its cache directory 302 and transmits thevictim memory block to the LPC memory controller 206 to update theappropriate system memory 108 (block 2424 or block 2428). In conjunctionwith the update to the memory block, the LPC memory controller 206 alsoupdates the domain indicator 504 to indicate either “local” (block 2424)or “global” (block 2428) in accordance with an indication provided byresponse logic 210 in the CR of whether or not a shared copy of thevictim memory block or a reservation for the victim memory block remainsin the system. Thus, if the requesting L2 cache 230 holds a reservationfor the victim memory block, the LPC memory controller 206 updates thedomain indicator 504 for the memory block to “global” (block 2428) andotherwise updates the domain indicator 504 to “local” (block 2424).

Returning to block 2422, if the requesting L2 cache 230 is casting outan Ig memory block, the global bus castout operation is handled inaccordance with block 2428. In particular, the requesting L2 cache 230invalidates the victim memory block within its cache directory 302without any data transfer, and the LPC memory controller 206 updates thedomain indicator 504 for the corresponding to indicate “global” (block2428).

As represented by the process passing from block 2422 through block 2425to block 2427, if the victim memory block is in either of the Tn or Tecoherency states, the global bus castout operation is handled is handledin accordance with block 2428 if the partial responses and CR indicatethat a reservation exists for the victim memory block or that an S′ orSr′ snooper 236 affirmed the castout operation or is possibly hidden. Ifthe partial responses and CR indicate that no reservation exists for thevictim memory block and that no S or Sr′ snooper 236 affirmed thecastout operation or is possibly hidden, the global bus castoutoperation is handled in accordance with block 2424.

Finally, as represented by the process passing from block 2422 to block2425 and then to block 2428, the global bus castout operation is handledin accordance with block 2428 if the victim memory block is held by therequesting L2 cache 230 in the T state. As discussed further below withreference to FIG. 28, the LPC memory controller 206 preferablypessimistically updates the domain indicator 504 of the victim memoryblock to indicate “global” as shown at block 2428 regardless of thepresence or absence of any actual shared copy of or reservation for thevictim memory block because castouts of T memory blocks are preferablynot snooped by L2 caches 230 due to the high likelihood of the existenceof either or both of a shared cached copy of or reservation for thevictim memory block.

With reference now to FIG. 25, there is illustrated a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a local bus writeoperation in a data processing system in accordance with preferredembodiments of the present invention. The process begins at block 2500,for example, with the issuance by an I/O controller 214 of a local buswrite operation on a local interconnect 114 at block 1004 of FIG. 10.The various partial responses that snoopers 222, 236 may provide todistributed response logic 210 are represented in FIG. 25 by theoutcomes of decision blocks 2502, 2510, 2512, 2520, 2522 and 2530. Thesepartial responses in turn determine the CR for the local bus writeoperation.

If no snooper 222 provides a partial response indicating that isresponsible (i.e., the LPC) for the target memory block (block 2502),each valid affirming snooper 236 invalidates its respective copy of thetarget memory block, as shown at block 2504, and response logic 210provides a “go global” CR, as illustrated at block 2506, because the LPCis a necessary participant in the bus write operation. As depicted atblock 2510, if a snooper 222 provides a partial response indicating thatit is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for the requested memory block butdoes not affirm the local bus write operation (block 2512) and a M or Mesnooper 236 affirms the local bus write operation (block 2510), the M orMe snooper 236 invalidates its copy of the requested memory block (block2254). In addition, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “retrylocal”, as depicted at block 2518, because the LPC must be available toreceive the target memory block.

Response logic 210 similarly generates a “retry” CR at block 2534 andeach valid affirming snooper 236 invalidates its respective copy of therequested memory block (block 2532) if a memory controller snooper 222indicates that it is the LPC for the target memory block, no M, Me, orTx snooper 236 affirms the local bus write operation, and a partialresponse indicates that a M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 may be hidden (block2530). In this case, each affirming snooper 236 invalidates its copy, ifany, of the target memory block, and response logic 210 generates a“retry” CR so that the local bus write operation only succeeds when noHPC copy of the requested memory block remains in the system.

Referring again to block 2512, assuming that a M or Me snooper 236affirms the local bus write operation and a snooper 222 affirms thelocal bus write operation as the LPC, the requesting L2 cache 230transmits the requested memory block to the LPC snooper 222 and validaffirming snoopers 236, if any, invalidate their respective copies ofthe requested memory block (block 2514). In addition, the LPC snooper222 sets the domain indicator 504 associated with the target memoryblock to “local”. The process ends at block 2516 with distributedresponse logic 210 generating a CR indicating “success”.

As depicted at block 2520 and following blocks, if a snooper 222provides a partial response indicating that it is the LPC for the targetmemory block (block 2502) but cannot affirm the local bus writeoperation (block 2522), no M or Me snooper 236 affirms the local buswrite operation (block 2510), and a Tx snooper 236 affirms the local buswrite operation, distributed response logic 210 generates a CRindicating “retry local” (block 2518) to force the operation to bereissued locally, and valid snoopers 236 affirming the local bus writeoperation invalidate their respective copies of the requested memoryblock (block 2524). Assuming the same partial responses except for theLPC snooper 222 affirming the local bus write operation (block 2522),the requesting L2 cache 230 transmits the requested memory block to theLPC snooper 222, and each valid snooper 236 affirming the local buswrite operation invalidates its respective copy of the requested memoryblock (block 2526). In addition, the LPC snooper 222 sets the domainindicator 504 associated with the target memory block to “local”.

In response to the local bus write operation and partial responses bythe Tx snooper 236 and the LPC snooper 222 affirming the local bus writeoperation, distributed response logic 210 generates a CR indicating“local cleanup” if the Tx snooper 236, prior to invalidation, held thetarget memory block in one of the Tn and Ten states (blocks 2540 and2542), and otherwise generates a CR indicating “cleanup” (block 2528).It should noted that the presence of a Tn or Ten coherency statesenables the scope of bus kill operations during cleanup operations to belimited to the local coherency domain.

Referring now to FIG. 26, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus writeoperation in a data processing system in accordance with the presentinvention. As shown, the process begins at block 2600, for example, withan I/O controller 214 issuing a global bus write operation on systeminterconnect 110 at block 1020 of FIG. 10. The various partial responsesthat snoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed response logic 210 arerepresented in FIG. 26 by the outcomes of decision blocks 2610, 2620,2624, 2626 and 2641. These partial responses in turn determine the CRfor the global bus write operation.

As depicted at block 2610, if no snooper 222 provides a partial responseindicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for the requestedmemory block, an error occurs causing processing to halt, as depicted atblock 2612. If, however, a snooper 222 provides a partial responseindicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for the requestedmemory block but does not affirm the global bus write operation (block2620), each valid affirming snoopers 236 invalidates its respective copyof the requested memory block (block 2621), and response logic 210generates a CR indicating “retry” (block 2622) because the LPC must beavailable to receive the requested memory block. Response logic 210similarly generates a “retry” CR and each valid affirming snooper 236invalidates its respective copy of the requested memory block if amemory controller snooper 222 affirms the global bus write operation buta partial response indicates that an M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 may bepossibly hidden (blocks 2624, 2621 and 2622). In this case, a “retry” CRis generated so that the global bus write operation only succeeds whenno HPC copy of the requested memory block remains in the system.

Referring again to block 2624, assuming that a snooper 222 affirms theglobal bus write operation as the LPC and no partial responses aregenerated that indicate that a M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 may be possiblyhidden, the requesting L2 cache 230 transmits the requested memory blockto the LPC snooper 222, and valid snoopers 236, if any, affirming thebus write operation invalidate their respective copies of the requestedmemory block (block 2628 or block 2640). As represented by blocks 2626and 2630, if the partial responses indicate that no S′ or Sr′ snooper236 is possibly hidden, the process ends with distributed response logic210 generating a CR indicating “success”. In addition, the LPC snooper222 sets the domain indicator 504 associated with the requested memoryblock to indicate “local” (block 2628). If, on the other hand, at leastone partial response indicating the presence of a possibly hidden S′ orSr′ snooper 236 was given in response to the global bus write operation(block 2626), distributed response logic 210 generates a CR indicatingthe need for cleanup operations. In particular, distributed responselogic 210 generates a CR indicating “local cleanup” (block 2644) if theTx snooper 236, prior to invalidation, held the target memory block inone of the Tn and Ten states and the LPC snooper 222 and Tx snooper 236are both within the local coherency domain of the requesting I/Ocontroller 214 (block 2641). Otherwise, response logic 210 generates aCR indicating “cleanup” (block 2642).

With reference now to FIG. 27, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of performing a global bus partialwrite operation in a data processing system in accordance with thepresent invention. The process begins at block 2700, for example, withan I/O controller 214 issuing a global bus partial write operation onsystem interconnect 110 at block 1122 of FIG. 11. The various partialresponses that snoopers 222, 236 may provide to distributed responselogic 210 are represented in FIG. 27 by the outcomes of decision blocks2710, 2720, 2721, 2722, 2734 and 2738. These partial responses in turndetermine the CR for the global bus partial write operation.

As depicted at block 2710, if no snooper 222 provides a partial responseindicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) for the requestedpartial memory block, an error occurs causing processing to halt, asdepicted at block 2712. An error condition arises because the specifiedtarget address has no LPC within data processing system 100.

Distributed response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “retry”, asshown at block 2728, in response to four combinations of partialresponses. First, response logic 210 generates a CR indicating “retry”and each valid affirming snooper 236 invalidates its respective copy ofthe requested memory block (block 2724) if a snooper 222 provides apartial response indicating that it is responsible (i.e., the LPC) forthe requested partial memory block but does not affirm the global buspartial write operation (block 2720). A “retry” CR is generated becausethe LPC must be available to receive the partial memory block from theI/O controller 214.

Second, response logic 210 similarly generates a “retry” CR as shown atblock 2728 and each valid affirming snooper 236 invalidates itsrespective copy of the requested memory block (block 2724) if a memorycontroller snooper 222 affirms the global bus partial write operation,no M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 affirms the global bus partial writeoperation (blocks 2721 and 2722), but a partial response indicates thata M, Me, or Tx snooper 236 may be possibly hidden (block 2734). A“retry” CR is generated to avoid stale copies of the target memory blockremaining in data processing system 100 following an update to systemmemory 108.

In the third and fourth cases, response logic 210 generates a “retry”CR, as illustrated at block 2728, if a memory controller snooper 222affirms the global bus partial write operation, and an M, Me, or Txsnooper 236 affirms the global bus partial write operation (block 2721or block 2722). In either of the third and fourth cases, each validaffirming snooper 236 invalidates its respective copy of the targetmemory block, as shown at blocks 2724, 2725 (an affirming M, T, Te orTen snooper 236 invalidates its copy of the target memory block duringthe cache castout operation at block 2723). In addition, as just noted,an M, T, Te or Tn snooper 236 initiates a cache castout operation of thecache line containing the partial memory block, as depicted at block2723. Thus, a “retry” CR is generated, as depicted at block 2728, sothat the global bus partial write operation only succeeds when no staleHPC copy of the requested partial memory block will remain in dataprocessing system 100.

Referring again to block 2734, assuming that a snooper 222 affirms theglobal bus partial write operation as the LPC, no M, Me, or Tx snooper236 affirms the global bus partial write operation or is possiblyhidden, the requesting L2 cache 230 transmits the partial memory blockto the LPC snooper 222, and valid snoopers 236, if any, affirming theglobal bus partial write operation invalidate their respective copies ofthe requested memory block (block 2736). In addition, the LPC snooper222 updates the domain indicator 504 for the updated memory block to“global”. As shown at blocks 2738 and 2740, if the partial responsesindicate that no hidden S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 exists, the process endswith distributed response logic 210 generating a CR indicating“success”. If, on the other hand, at least one partial responseindicating the presence of a possibly hidden S′ or Sr′ snooper 236 wasgiven in response to the global bus partial write operation, distributedresponse logic 210 generates a CR indicating “cleanup” (block 2742),meaning that the requesting L2 cache 230 must issue one or more bus killoperations to invalidate the requested memory block in any such hiddenS′ or Sr′ snooper 236.

VIII. Snoop Filtering

As discussed briefly above, system performance in handling theinterconnect operations discussed above is improved by reducingcontention for L2 cache directories 302 through the operation of snoopfilters 320 in L2 caches 230. In one exemplary embodiment of snoopfilter 320, snoop filter 320 filters out selected local and global buscastout operations so that the number of processor core request and busoperations contending for access to L2 cache directories 302 is reduced.Generally speaking, the purpose for snooping bus castout operations isto determine if any shared copies of the castout memory block remain inthe data processing system so that the domain indicator 504 for thecastout memory block in system memory 108 is set appropriately.

Referring now to FIG. 28, there is illustrated a high level flowchart ofan exemplary method of snoop filtering by snoop filter 320 in accordancewith the present invention. As depicted, the process begins at block2800 in response to receipt by a snoop filter 320 of a local or globalbus operation. In response to receipt of the local or global busoperation, snoop filter 320 determines whether or not the bus operationis a bus castout operation of a memory block in any of the T, Tn, M orMe coherency states, as shown at blocks 2802, 2804 and 2820. If not, thebus operation is not filtered out and is handled normally, as shown atblock 2830. Thereafter, the process ends at block 2840.

Referring again to block 2820, if the bus operation is a castoutoperation of a memory block in the Tn coherency state (the coherencystate is preferably indicated in the transaction type of the operation),snoop filter 320 further determines at block 2822 whether the buscastout operation is a local bus castout operation or a global buscastout operation. In general, castouts of memory blocks in the Tncoherency state are initially issued with a local scope, as shown atblocks 1204 and 1206 of FIG. 12. As indicated by the process proceedingfrom block 2822 to block 2840 in response to an affirmativedetermination at block 2822, snoop filter 320 filters out local buscastout operations of Tn memory blocks. Such local bus castoutoperations are filtered out because the only shared copies of the Tncastout memory block, if any, reside in the same coherency domain. Thus,if the LPC memory controller 206 for the castout memory block is presentin the local coherency domain, the LPC memory controller 206 shouldupdate the domain indicator 504 to indicate “local” whether or not anyshared copies of the memory block exist. Accordingly, there is no reasonto utilize snoop bandwidth to discover shared copies of the castoutmemory block.

Returning to block 2822, if the bus castout operation for a Tn memoryblock is a global bus castout operation, snoop filter 320 determineswhether its L2 cache 230 is local to the L2 cache 230 that initiated theglobal bus castout operation. As described above, this determination canbe made, for example, by reference to a domain indicator contained inthe operation. In response to a determination by the snoop filter 320that the snooping L2 cache 230 is not within the same coherency domainas the L2 cache 230 initiating the bus castout operation, snoop filter320 again filters out the bus castout operation, as indicated by theprocess proceeding from block 2824 to block 2840. No snooping isrequired because the Tn coherency state requires that no shared copy ofthe memory block exists in the present L2 cache 230 or any other L2cache 230 outside of the coherency domain of the initiating L2 cache230.

In response to an affirmative determination at block 2824, the processproceeds to block 2826, which illustrates snoop filter 320 passing thebus castout operation to multiplexer 322 for eventual snooping againstthe L2 cache directory 302 and reservation address registers 314. Inthis case, a full snoop is performed to permit the discovery andreporting to the LPC memory controller 206 of any shared copies of thecastout memory block in the originating coherency domain. If any suchshared copies exist, the LPC memory controller 206 needs to reset thedomain indicator 504 for the memory block to indicate “global”, and ifnot, the LPC memory controller 206 can set the domain indicator 504 toindicate “local” since the originating coherency domain is guaranteed bythe Tn coherency state to be the only coherency domain that may possiblycontain a copy of the castout memory block. Following either of blocks2824 and 2826, the process ends at block 2840.

Referring now to block 2804, if the castout memory block is in the M orMe coherency state, only the processing unit 200 that initiated the buscastout operation can possibly have a cached copy of or reservation forthe castout memory block. Thus, as indicated at block 2806, if thesnooping L2 cache 230 is not the initiating L2 cache 230, snoop filter230 filters out the bus castout operation, as indicated by the processpassing from block 2806 directly to block 2840. Even if the snooping L2cache 230 is the initiating L2 cache 230, snoop filter 320 filters outthe bus castout operation if the bus castout operation has a local scope(block 2808). This is because if the LPC memory controller 206 is foundby a local bus castout operation, it is known by virtue of the M or Mestate that no shared copy of the castout memory block exists and thatthe LPC memory controller 206 can update the domain indicator 504 toindicate “local.” Advantageously, even if the bus castout operation is aglobal bus castout operation, snoop filter 320 can mark the global buscastout operation so that it is only snooped against reservationregisters 314 and not against L2 cache directory 302 (block 2810). Thus,a reservation is considered as a “virtual-shared” memory block in thecache for purposes of snooping in this case so that any updates to areserved address reset the reservation.

Referring finally to block 2802, snoop filter 320 preferably filters outall bus castout operations of memory blocks in the T coherency state, asindicated by the process passing directly from block 2802 to block 2840.These bus castout operations are filtered out under the assumption thata shared copy of the castout memory block is very likely to existoutside of the coherency domain containing the LPC memory controller206. Accordingly, the LPC memory controller 206 can imprecisely resetthe domain indicator 504 for the castout memory block to indicate“global”. In general, the latency improvement resulting from preciselymarking the memory block as “local” in the small percentage of caseswhere this is possible is outweighed by the performance benefitsconcomitant with reducing contention for access to L2 cache directories302.

Moreover, if a precise update to the domain indicator 504 wereimplemented for castout memory blocks in the T coherency state, the buscastout operation would be required to always be a global broadcast inorder to discover any remote copies of the castout memory block. Thus,by making the update to the domain indicator 504 imprecise, the buscastout operation for a memory block in the T coherency state caninitially be selected to have a local scope. Assuming software affinity,meaning that software and its data remain within the same coherencydomain, a local bus castout operation can generally be serviced withoutretry, saving significant bandwidth on interconnects 110, 114.

While the invention has been particularly shown as described withreference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method of data processing in a cache coherent data processingsystem including at least a first cache memory supporting a firstprocessing unit and a second cache memory supporting a second processingunit, wherein said first cache memory includes a cache array and a cachedirectory of contents of said cache array, said method comprising: inresponse to said first cache memory snooping on an interconnect abroadcast operation of said second cache memory, wherein said broadcastoperation specifies a request address, said first cache memorydetermining from said operation both a type of said operation and acoherency state associated with said request address, wherein said firstcache memory determines the coherency state without accessing said cachedirectory; and in response to determining said type and said coherencystate, said first cache memory filtering out said broadcast operation ofsaid second cache memory without accessing said cache directory.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said determining comprises determining thatsaid broadcast operation is a castout operation.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein said broadcast operation is a first broadcast operation andsaid first cache memory further includes a reservation register forholding an address for which said first processing unit holds areservation, said method further comprising: in response to said firstcache memory detecting a second broadcast operation, said first cachememory snooping said broadcast operation against said reservationregister without accessing said cache directory.
 4. The method of claim3, wherein said first cache memory is a source of said second broadcastoperation.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein: said data processingsystem includes a first coherency domain including said first and secondcache memories and said first and second processing units and a secondcoherency domain including a third cache memory that supports a thirdprocessing unit; said filtering out further comprises filtering out saidbroadcast operation if said broadcast operation has a scope of broadcastlimited to said first coherency domain and excluding said secondcoherency domain.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein: said dataprocessing system includes a system memory assigned said requestaddress; said coherency state indicates that a memory block associatedwith said request address is possibly held in multiple cache memoriesand is modified with respect to a corresponding memory block in saidsystem memory.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein: said data processingsystem includes a system memory assigned said request address; saidcoherency state indicates that a memory block associated with saidrequest address is held by only a single cache memory and is modifiedwith respect to a corresponding memory block in said system memory.